Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80 | Page 4

some return for her own heavy expenses. From the
establishment of order and of confidence sprang a prosperity which

enabled her to obtain a certain revenue, though entirely inadequate to
her expenditure. Thus we beheld her pressing solidly on, and we knew
not where she might stop. Pretexts, such as it was difficult to find a
flaw in, were never wanting on which to ground a fresh absorption of
territory. And seeing behind this advance a vast country--almost a
continent--which was not merely a great Asiatic Power, but a great
European State, under autocratic, irresponsible rule, with interests
touching ours at many points, it is not to be wondered at that we
watched with anxiety her progress as she bore steadily down toward
our Indian frontier."
General Hamley says that England became particularly suspicious of
Russia in 1867 when she absorbed Turkestan, and this feeling was
intensified in 1878, while the Treaty of Berlin was still pending.
General Kaufmann assembled a small army of about 12,000 men and
thirty-two guns on the frontier of Bokhara, and although upon the
signing of the treaty all threatening movements ceased, yet the British
commander then operating in Afghanistan knew that Kaufmann had
proposed to march in the direction of Kabul, and menace the British
frontier.
It has ever been the practice of Russia, in her schemes of
aggrandizement, to combine her diplomatic with her military
machinery; but, unlike other nations, the ambassador has generally
been subordinate to the general.
At the time that General Kaufmann sheathed his sword under the
influence of the Treaty of Berlin, in 1878, there remained another
representative of Russia--General Stolietoff--who had been quietly
negotiating with the Ameer of Afghanistan, Shere Ali, the terms of a
"Russian treaty," whose characteristics have already been described.
Hearing of this, the English Ambassador at St. Petersburg questioned
the Russian Minister, who answered him "that no mission had been, nor
was intended to be, sent to Kabul, either by the Imperial Government or
by General Kaufmann." This denial was given on July 3d, the day after
Stolietoff and his mission had started from Samarcand. After the
envoy's arrival at Kabul, another remonstrance met with the reply that
the mission was "of a professional nature and one of simple courtesy,"
and was not, therefore, inconsistent with the pacific assurances already
given. The real nature of this mission became known from papers

found by General Roberts at Kabul in 1879. These showed that Shere
Ali had been invited to form a close alliance with the Russian
Government. General Kaufmann had advised Shere Ali to try and stir
up disaffection among the Queen's Indian subjects, promising to aid
him, eventually, with troops. Finding that this scheme was
impracticable at the moment, Russia dropped the Ameer, who fled from
the scene of his misfortunes, and died soon after.
For the moment England breathed more freely. There were still great
natural obstacles between the empires of Russia and of India. Not only
the friendly state of Afghanistan, but on its northwestern border the
neutral territory of Merv, hitherto an independent province, and
inhabited by warlike tribes of Turcomans difficult to reach through
their deserts and likely to harass a Russian advance to Herat to an
embarrassing extent. It was seen that the possession of this territory
would at once free Russia from much difficulty in case of an advance
and give her the means of threatening Herat as well as Kabul from her
base in Turkestan, and even to some extent to carry forward that base
beyond the Oxus.
On the part of Russia, the success of General Skobeleff in capturing the
fortified position of Geok Tepe, January 24, 1880, marked the
beginning of negotiations with the Turcomans for the acquisition of
Merv. For a long while these were unsuccessful, but early in 1884 it
was cabled to London, that "The Queen of the World" had accepted the
White Czar as her future liege lord.
The immediate cause of this event was the effect produced upon the
minds of the Turcoman deputation to Moscow by the spectacle of the
Czar's coronation. The impression created by the gorgeous ceremonial
was heightened by the presence of so many Asiatic chiefs and kinglets
at the ancient and historic capital of Russia. The tales they brought
back were well calculated to influence the minds of a wild and
primitive people; and when the Khan of Khiva proffered his services
for the settlement of their relations with Russia, that section of the
Tekke tribe in favor of peace accepted them. The chiefs tendered their
formal submission to the Czar, and promised to allow Russian
merchants to reside among them, and pledged themselves to maintain
the security of the routes from the Oxus to the Tejend; also accepting
the responsibilities of Russian subjects by rendering tribute