Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-01-21
HOW BRITISH MET
PROBLEMS |NEAST
Attempts of Central Powers to
Win Nations Adjacent to
India Frustrated.
DIPLOMACY OF Mr.. GRANT

Correspondence of the Associated Press.
SIMLA, India. December 1S.-Never
before in the history of India have
more delicate and weighty questions
been thrust upon the foreign Office
Since the beginning of the war Arao ia.
Persia, Afghanistan and the other
countries adjacent to the Indian en-
pire all have furnished their problems,
the attempts of Germany and Turkey
to win the people of these nations to
the side of the central allies having
created situations which had vital
bearing on the world conflict.
The relations between the British
government and these eastern countries
since the outbreak of hoStliltles ana
something OF the events ieaoihS up 70
the present status were described TO
a correspondent of the Associated fress
by the man responsible. under me
yiceroy for the conduct of Indian Tor
secretary for India, whose diplomacy
and intimate knowledge OF conditions
in the east are said to have been large
" responsible for the bridging OF the
floods of intrigue that have been set
loose in the orient by the war.
Policy Toward Tibet.
made pronouncement of policy
toward Tibet. He stated that the
suspicions concerning the British gov
ernment's intentions in regard to TINS
country were unfounded as Great
Britain had no desire to interfere with
her neighbor in any way so long as
Tibet was left. alone by other powers
He pointed out that midas foreign
interests cover very vide neld,
frfN
the Pacific slope.
..Trade and religious and political
movements, affecting India he con-
tinued, bring us daily references, es-
pecially since the war, from an manner
of distant places; but our main inter
ests. of course, are conferred on the
countries Immediately adjacent to IN
dia: on Arabia, the Persian gulf, Persia,
Baluchistan, Afghanistan, the hoitn-
vest frontier, Tibet and China. Each
of these presents it's own peculiar prop
lens, which have, naturally, been com
plicated out of all knowledge by the
worldwide war ana the lhtfiS ueS ie
sulting from it.
ON Arab the main point of interest
is Alden. which, l am glad to say. we
have been able to defend without DIT
fculty against a Turkish lnroad from
the north The Alden settlement itself
has never for one moment been in dam
ger, although a Turkish force pene-
trated south of the Yemen The ARABS
of the Alden hinderland, in spite of the
difficult position in which they nave
been placed by this inroad, have re-
manned, on the whole, remarkably loyal
to the British government.
Persian Gulf Tranquil.
1.-THE Persian gulf. due to the dispatch
early in the war of a force to Mesopo-
tamia, has remained tranquil. The
| leading chiefs of the gulf littora1 have
remained entirely stanch to the Brit
ish government, and have maintained
peace and order on the shores of the
gulf
ION the Persian side. however. things
have not been quite so satisfactory.
| But this is rather the reaction of the
| conditions in the interior of Persia than
any real manifestation of unrest on the
| littoral. for that most distressful
| country, Persia. has been. through no
fault of her own, dragged into the vor-
tex of the war by the selfish and I'M
scrupulous intrigue of the central pow
| ers.
PERSIA with an ever-cfanging gov
| eminent unsupported by an army. af-
| forded vacuum into which alien in
! trigue would inevitably fly. German
| diplomacy was not slow to realize that
here was field for endeavor. If a
\ state of disorder and religious excite
| ment could be caused in Persia which
would force the Persian government to
| declare itself on the side of the Ger
| manic powers, the moral effect would
| he far-reaching. The confla grafton the
| Germans hoped would spread through
| out the middle east; AfghaniStan and
Russian Turkestan might catch fire and
| thefire spread to Moslem India and
| thereby Great Britain and Russia mil hit
i be seriously embarrassed.
| Tried to Create Fanatical Chaos.
with this policy before them. and
! regardless of the loss and suffering