The Coming Conquest of England | Page 5

Central Asia. With

indescribable toil and with untold sacrifice of treasure and blood our
rulers have entered the barren tracts of country lying between the Black
Sea and the Caspian, once inhabited by semibarbarous tribes, and,
further east again, the lands stretching away to the Chinese frontier and
the Himalayas, and have rendered them accessible to Russian
civilisation. But we have never taken a step, either east or south,
without meeting with English opposition or English intrigues. To-day
our frontiers march with the frontier of British East India, and impinge
upon the frontier of Persia and Afghanistan. We have opened up
friendly relations with both these states, entertain close commercial
intercourse with their peoples, support their industrial undertakings,
and shun no sacrifice to make them amenable to the blessings of
civilisation. Yet, step by step, England endeavours to hamper our
activity. British gold and British intrigues have succeeded in making
Afghanistan adopt a hostile attitude towards us. We must at last ask
ourselves this question: How long do we intend to look on quietly at
these undertakings? Russia must push her way down to the sea.
Millions of strong arms till the soil of our country. We have at our own
command inexhaustible treasures of corn, wood, and all products of
agriculture; yet we are unable to reach the markets of the world with
even an insignificant fraction of these fruits of the earth that Providence
has bestowed, because we are hemmed in, and hampered on every side,
so long as our way to the sea is blocked. Our mid-Asiatic possessions
are suffocated from want of sea air. England knows this but too well,
and therefore she devotes all her energies towards cutting us off from
the sea. With an insolence, for which there is no justification, she
declares the Persian Gulf to be her own domain, and would like to
claim the whole of the Indian Ocean, as she already claims India itself,
as her own exclusive property. This aggression must at last be met with
a firm 'Hands off,' unless our dear country is to run the risk of suffering
incalculable damage. It is not we who seek war; war is being forced
upon us. As to the means at our disposal for waging it, supposing
England will not spontaneously agree to our just demands, His
Excellency the Minister of War will be best able to give us particulars."
He bowed once more to the Grand Dukes and resumed his seat. The tall,
stately figure of the War Minister, Kuropatkin, next rose, at a sign from
the President, and said--

"For twenty years I served in Central Asia and I am able to judge, from
my own experience, of our position on the south frontier. In case of a
war with England, Afghanistan is the battle-ground of primary
importance. Three strategic passes lead from Afghanistan into India:
the Khyber Pass, the Bolan Pass, and the Kuram Valley. When, in 1878,
the English marched into Afghanistan they proceeded in three columns
from Peshawar, Kohat, and Quetta to Cabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar
respectively. These three roads have also been laid down as our lines of
march. Public opinion considers them the only possible routes. It would
carry me too far into detail were I to propound in this place my views
as to the 'pros and cons' of this accepted view. In short, we SHALL find
our way into India. Hahibullah Khan would join us with his army,
60,000 strong, as soon as we enter his territory. Of course, he is an ally
of doubtful integrity, for he would probably quite as readily join the
English, were they to anticipate us and make their appearance in his
country with a sufficiently imposing force. But nothing prevents our
being first. Our railway goes as far as Merv, seventy-five miles from
Herat, and from this central station to the Afghan frontier. With our
trans-Caspian railway we can bring the Caucasian army corps and the
troops of Turkestan to the Afghan frontier. I would undertake, within
four weeks of the outbreak of war, to mass a sufficient field army in
Afghanistan round Herat. Our first army can then be followed by a
ceaseless stream of regiments and batteries. The reserves of the Russian
army are inexhaustible, and we could place, if needs be, four million
soldiers and more than half a million of horses in the field. However, I
am more than doubtful whether England would meet us in Afghanistan.
The English generals would not, in any case, be well advised to leave
India. Were they defeated in Afghanistan only small fragments of their
army at most would escape back to India. The Afghans would show no
mercy to a fleeing English army and would destroy it, as has happened
on a previous occasion. If,