PREFACE.

THE following pages were commenced at a time when it appeared as if the final stage of the rivalry between England and Russia in Central Asia had been reached. War between the two countries was held to be imminent. A Russian officer had come as ambassador to Cabul, in contravention of distinct pledges to the effect that no Russian ambassador should be sent. An English representative had been refused permission to proceed to Cabul. The Ameer was employed in fêting his Russian friends, and in dictating discourteous and semi-hostile letters to his English. The preparations for war were being pressed on with all possible speed in the Punjab and Bengal. There were bustle and activity perceptible on all sides, and rumour magnified the scope of the war and the intentions of the Home and Indian Governments.

They are brought to a close when a widely different condition of affairs obtains. We have concluded a successful campaign. Our foe has expiated his folly with his life. The Russian Embassy, which was the original cause of the war, has been withdrawn. The credit of Russia has been lowered. The reputation of England has been exalted. Fortune has been on our side in every respect, and the machinations of our foes, secret and proclaimed, have been thwarted. The mission of General Stoletoff has been proved to be what the more skilled observers of Central Asian affairs at the time pronounced it to be, "a huge mistake." Yet none the less for this happy conclusion of an involved and dangerous business is it incontestable that the rivalry of England and Russia is as keen as ever, possibly more keen, because of the failure of the Russian scheme. For that reason the following pages, which claim to be based upon permanent truths, relate to as active a force as if they had been produced last November, when the want for information on the subject first made itself perceptible. The conclusions at which the writer has arrived are expressed without hesitation, and while they point to a very bold line of policy, it is in the full conviction that there is an absolute necessity for such plain speaking that they have been stated in these volumes. The time must come when

the words used here will be proved true, and the only effectual remedies against the evil are those bold measures from which timid spirits would shrink. The pith of the whole argument is to be found in the fact that we are now strong enough to solve the Central Asian Question wholly in our own favour. Are we to put off action until the tables are turned and Russia is more prepared than she is at present, while we may have grown less strong? or shall we finish the business out of hand?

Sir Henry Rawlinson has permitted the work to be dedicated to him, and the author is only too sensible of its deficiencies to make him feel confident of its having deserved the honour. But it will perhaps be conceded to the writer that, while endeavouring to throw as much light as possible upon the Central Asian Question, he has had the courage to define a line of political action, which, however open to criticism as aiming at too much, is consistent, and calculated to secure the object towards which it points. Much that is contained in these volumes has been told before, and the writer does not claim merit for originality in information. But the arrangement and mode of treatment are wholly different to those adopted in any other work on the subject, even to Von Helwald's, to whose it bears most affinity. The book seeks above all to apply the

lesson to be derived from history and the record of travellers to the burning political questions of the age. If the reader derives from the perusal of these pages a clearer insight into the causes of the conflict between English and Russian interests in Central Asia, and also rises with the conviction that the policy of Russia is such that it is worth a bold effort to paralyse its effects, the author will have been more than repaid for the three months' labour of writing them. The Central Asian Question should not be the monopoly of a few specialists, or even of the Anglo-Indian world. It is a matter of vital consequence-daily increasing—to every Englishman, and as such it should be studied and gravely considered.