THE previous Afghan Blue-book ended with an important despatch from Lord Granville on the delimitation of the frontier. Lord Granville then demanded that the southern limit of the debatable zone should be constituted by a line drawn from Shir Tepe to Penjdeh. Russia wanted to push it further south, "to the chain of heights which border on the north the Valley of Herat." The way in which Russia pressed her claim was regarded as peculiarly objectionable by the English Government, and Lord Granville plainly told the Foreign Minister of the Czar that they could not proceed on a basis "which substantially denies the equal footing of the two Powers." The negotiations were at this stage when the news came of General Komaroff's attack upon the Afghans, and the main efforts of diplomacy were henceforth for some time directed to that incident. The English Government would not continue to negotiate on the main question till some sort of satisfaction had been obtained for General Komaroff's proceedings, and they finally got their way. All the steps in this secondary dispute are given with the greatest fulness. What we miss is any record of the negotiation which finally ended in our accepting not merely a zone but a frontier, and that drawn considerably to the south of Shir Tepe. We think that the Government were quite right in assenting to the Russian view that the frontier should in the main be drawn in London. Their great mistake was to send out Sir Peter Lumsden without having previously obtained Russia's unequivocal recognition of a definite zone within which the Commission was to operate and within which no troops on either side should set foot. They attempted to attain this object at the last moment by the Sacred Covenant of March 17, but by that time the Russians and Afghans were almost within striking distance, and the peace could only be kept by a rigorous good faith and mutual forbearance which were found wanting. The peace was broken. Lord Granville then told the Russian Ambassador that "it was essential that any arrangement for the settlement of the frontier line should be preceded by the retirement of the Russian troops from the debated territory." The Russian Government answered that "as the withdrawal of Russian troops from the line occupied by them might give rise to anarchy they could not agree to it," and the English demand does not seem to have been further pressed. The point was not worth, going to war about, but it could be wished that Lord Granville would not declare a certain demand to be "essential," unless he meant that its rejection would be a casus belli. As to the general result obtained, we do not think that there is legitimate ground for dissatisfaction. Russia has yielded something as well as England, and all that he cared about the Ameer has got. After all, Russia has conceded to the Ameer a defensible frontier at a considerable distance from Herat, and she has consented to the English proposal of arbitration. At bottom we hold the diplomatic victory remains with England, and that appears to be the general impression on the Continent.
Manchester Guardian, June 3.
Central Asia 1885
Central Asia 1885
Table of Contents
Miracles of healing - Christian Miracles or Healing
History of Russia: Christian Versus Barbarian
History of Japan: Early Christian Martyrs
The Jesus of History
The Assyrian Origin of Devil Worshippers
The Christ Of Dogma
The early history of Constantinople
