مراسلات وقصاصات من الصحف عن بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي [و‎‎٨‎٧] (١٧٩/١٦٤)

156
August 13* 1898.]-.
war that the world has ever seen ; and it could only be
effected by a loss most unlikely to occur and more serious
■nitseffects upon the human race than that of India
jtself, namely the loss of the fibre of the British people.
But while he disclaims any belief in Russian
ambitions for the conquest of India, he empha
tically avers his conviction that Russian
generals and Russian statesmen seriously con
template the himxion of this country. Their
purpose is a very definite one. Their object is
not Calcutta, but Constantinople ; not the
Ganges, but the G-olden Horn. He says
The Itussian believes that the keys of the Bosphorus are
more likely to be won on the banks of the Helmund than
on the heights of Plevna. To keep England quiet in
Europe by keeping her employed in Asia, that, briefly put
is the sum and substance of Russian policy.
OUR RELATIONS WITH AFGHANISTAN.
In his discussion of . the relations of the
Indian Government wHh the Ameer Mr
Curzon includes the following significant
passage :—
To the hyper-sensitive custodians of British honour one is
tempted further to address the question, whether pled°e-
and microscopic fidelity in their fulfilment are to be an obli
gation imposed upon one party alone, and that the partv
which has nothing to gain and not the most to lose by the
conflict ? Are we to be bound to the chariot-wheels of the
Ameer, while the latter does nothing for us in return ? All
offensive and defensive alliances impose duties and even
risks upon those who make them, but these duties and
risks are mutual and should not be heaped upon the
shoulders of one of the two contracting parties alone.
There is no reciprocity in an engagement by which
Abdur Rahman is to have a lieu upon the support of British
troops in outlying portions of his dominions, whenever
these happen to be invaded, but under which British
soldiers, British officers, even British civilians, are not
otherwise suffered to set foot in the country for whose
alliance they pay in hard cash—an engagement which does
not even admit the presence of a British Resident at the
court whose policy we affect to control, or of British agents
at the frontier posts for which we are expected ^sub
missively to acquiesce in the summons to fight. To quote
a familiar phrase, the engagement thus interpreted is one
iu which England is to receive all the kicks and none of the
half-pence. A far more remunerative task than splitting hairs
as to the verbal significance of British obligations to Af ghan
istan would be the attempt to ascertain what are Afghan
obligations to Great Britain.
Again, in pointing out the possible recrudes
cence of the Aghan difficulty in its most dan
gerous form, he says :—
So long as Abdur Rahman lives, a buffer Afghanistan may
continue to figure in the list of independent States. Jlis
health is, however, extremely precarious, whilst at any
time a ruler thus feared, and in parts detested, is exposed
to the danger which he recently so providentially escaped
of assassination. His two sons are not of wwoi —i
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THE TIMES OF INDIA.
155
August 13^ 1898.]-'
war that the world has ever seen ; and it could only be
pffected by a loss most unlikely to occur and more serioua
. n its effects upon the human race than that of India
Itself, namely the loss of the fibre of the British people.
But while he disclaims any belief in Russian
ambitions for the conquest of India, he empha
tically avers his conviction that Russian
generals and Russian statesmen seriously con
template the invasion of this country. I heir
purpose is a very definite one. Their object is
not Calcutta, but Constantinople ; not the
Canges, but the Golden Horn. lie says :
The Russian believes that the keys of the Bosphorus are
more likely to be won on the banks of the Helmund than
on the heights of Plevna. To _ keep. England quiet in
Europe by keeping her employed in Asia, that, briefly put,
is the sum and substance of Russian policy.
OUR RELATIONS WITH AFGHANISTAN.
In his discussion of . the relations of the
Indian Government wHh the Ameer, Mr.
Curzon includes the following significant
passage :—
To the hyper-sensitive custodians of British honour one is
tempted further to address the question, whether pledges
and microscopic fidelity in their fulfilment are to be an obli
gation imposed upon one party alone, and that the party
which has nothing to gain and not the most to lose by the
conflict ? Are we to be bound to the chariot-wheels of the
Ameer, while the latter does nothing for us in return ? All
offensive and defensive alliances impose duties and even
risks upon those who make them, but these duties and
risks are mutual and should not be heaped upon the
shoulders of one of the two contracting parties alone.
There is no reciprocity in an engagement by which
Abdur Rahman is to have a lien upon the support of British
troops in outlying portions of his dominions, whenever
these happen to be invaded, but under which British
soldiers, British officers, even British civilians, are not
otherwise suffered to set foot in the country for whose
alliance they pay in hard cash—an engagement which does
not even admit the presence of a British Resident at the
court whose policy we affect to control, or of British agents
at the frontier posts for which we are expected sub
missively to acquiesce in the summons to fight. To quote
a familiar phrase, the engagement thus interpreted is one
in which England is to receive all the kicks and none of the
half-pence. A far more remunerative task than splitting hairs
as to the verbal significance of British obligations to Afghan
istan would be the attempt to ascertain what are Afghan
obligations to Great Britain.
Again, in pointing out the possible recrudes
cence of the Aghan difficulty in its most dan
gerous form, he says :—
So long as Abdur Rahman lives, a buffer Afghanistan may
continue to figure in the list of independent States. His
health is, however, extremely precarious, whilst at any
time a ruler thus feared, and in parts detested, is exposed
to the danger which he recently so providentially escaped
of assassination. His two sons are not of royal blood, and
would, therefore, not appeal to the loyalty of the Afghan
tribes, nor has either of them shown any capacity to suc
ceed his father. Upon the death of the latter it is to be
feared that a time of trouble will again recur, more critical
than any of its predecessors inasmuch as Russia notoriously
looks to such an emergency as providing an excuse for her
next advance. Rival candidates for the throne will at
once be forthcoming—Ishak Khan from Samarkand,
possibly Ayub Khan from India, and very likely some
other claimant in the country or from the Afghan Army—
and in the state of. civil war thus engendered, it will not
be Russia’s fault if she does not pull some chestnuts out
of the lire.
Finally, he points out the future policy to be
adopted by Great Britain, and warmly advo
cates the construction of frontier railways, in
the following words :—
In face of the contingencies which I have named, the lai'ger
scheme may again be heard of, and to those who detect in
such a proposal the glimmer of Jingo war-paint I make the
unhesitating and unequivocal reply, based upon a personal
inspection of both the Indian and the Russian frontier
railways (in each case originally constructed for strategi
cal purposes), that there is no such means of pacifying an
Oriental country as a railway, even a military railway ; and
that it for bullets and bayonets we substitute roads and
railroads as the motto of our future policy towards
Afghanistan, we shall find ourselves standing upon the
threshold of a new and brighter era of relations with that
country.
MR. CURZON AND THE AMEER.
Late in 1894 Mi*. Curzon visited the Ameer,
and communicated a graphic description of the
personality of the Afghan ruler to the columns
of the Times. After briefly sketching the career
of Abdur Rahman, and the means by which he
consolidated his power, he said :—
Nor should it be forgotten that in carrying out the policy
of consolidation which I have described, Abdur Rahman has
f\ooa and has acted alone. His is not perhaps the sort of
natfhe relies much upon exterior counsel, or that com
mits its plans to powerful Ministers or confidential agents.
However this may be, at no court that I have ever seen is
there less of the clientele of government, or of an adminis
trative or executive hierarchy than at Cabul. The Ameer
is the sole Government. He has no Ministers. He is his
own I rime Minister, his own Foreign Minister, his
own Finance Minister. Many of the ^civil and judicial
functions of government he delegates, with a wise
forethought, to his eldest son Sirdar Habibuliah Khan, who
will succeed him. But in all the essentials of rule, he, and
lie alone, exists. There is hardly anything, from the com
mand ot any army or the government of a province, to the
cut of a uniform or the fabrication of furniture, that is not
personally controlled by him. He is the brain, and eyes,
and ears of all .Afghanistan. The danger of so supreme a
concentration is not felt while it lasts. It only emerges
when, m the course of nature, it is withdrawn. ‘Then the
faculties m others whose-development has been thus tacitly
arrested are apt to be found paralyzed by their lomr
inactivity. ^ j o
The future of Afghanistan he foreshadowed
in the following passage :—
Ameer would not be the statesman that I take I
to be if Ins devotion to his country were not accompar
i recc >guition of its intrinsic lack of strength. ]
by this do I mean material or physical strength only—
alter all the Afghans have shown on many a field that t]
can contend even against a European foe—but those som
of cohesion by which alone a nation can resist the combi:
forces, of external pressure and internal disruption.
Asiatic country, except, perhaps, China, has ever succ<
i idly kept out the foreigner or retained its independei
except by borrowing some or the moral and intellect
resources of that civilization which it fears. If Afghanis
is to 1)6 kept alive, it will not be by the march of so m:
thousand British soldiers to its defence, nor by themanui
lure of repeating rifles and machine guns in worksh
modelled from the European pattern, but by its adaptal
to those conditions, under which alone, in the 20th cent!
will continued national existence be possible. Of this
man has a clearer perception than fits present ruler. .
1 do not say that the adoption of any or even all of tl
measuies by an autocrat whose intellect may be generati
in advance of that of his people, and whose lightest whir
law, is synonymous with national resuscitation, or ■
straightway convert Afghanistan, which is now a w
country, into a strong one. But I do say that they are
steps m the right direction ; that they will tend to hi
down.the barrier which character, history, and religion l
combined to erect between the Afghans and civilizati
and that by making them happier, more comfortable, n
resourceful, and above all, less ignorant, their present r
will, it he lives to carry out his plans, have done rr
towards infusing his subjects with that solidarity/in w
cey are at present so painfully lacking.
The letter closed with a vivid sketch of the
Ameer himself. Mr. Curzon said of him :—
A few words may he added about the personal aspect,
and attributes of the Ameer. A man of great stature
of colossal personal strength, and of corresponding
stoutness of frame when in his prime, he is now much
altered by sickness from the appearance presented, for
instance, by the photographs taken at the Rawulpindi
Durbar in 1885. If I may hazard a personal opinion, I
would add that he has profited greatly by the change. A
large, but in no wise unwieldy figure, sitting upright upon
silken quilts, outspread over a low char pot/, or bedstead,
the limbs encased in close-fitting lambswool garments ; a
fur-lined pelisse hanging over’the shoulders, and a spotless
white silk turban wound round the conical Afghan skull
cap of cloth of silver or of gold, and coming low down on
to the forehead ; a broad and massive countenance with
regular features, but complexion visibly sallow from
recent illness ; brows that contract somewhat as the
speaker is pondering or arguing ; luminous black eyes that
look out very straightly and fixedly, without the slightest
movement or wavering ; a black moustache close clipped
upon the upper lip, and a carefully trimmed black beard,
neither so long nor so luxuriant as of yore, framing a
mouth that responds to every expression, and which, when
it opens (as not unfrequently happens) to loud laughter,
widens at the corners and discloses the full line of teeth
in both jaws ; a voice resonant but not harsh, and an
articulation of surprising emphasis and clearness ; above
all, a manner of unchallengeable dignity and command—
this was the outward’guise and bearing of the kingly host
with whom I enjoyed so many hours of delightful conver
sation while at Cabul. I may add that for stating his
own case in an argument or controversy the Ameer would
not easily find a match on the front benches in the House
of Commons ; whilst if he can be induced, as can w thout
difficulty be done, to talk of his own experiences and to
relate stories of his adventures in warfare or exile, the
organized minuteness and deliberation with which each
stage of the narrative in due order proceeds is only equalled
by the triumphant crash of the climax and only exceeded
by the roar of laughter which the denouement almost
invariably provokes from the audience, and in which the
author as heartily joins. Like most men trained in the
Persian literary school (Persian being the language of the
upper classes in Afghanistan), the Ameer is a constant
quoter of saws and wise sayings from that inexhaustible
well of sapient philosophy, that Iranian Pope, the Sheikh
Saadi. Nor do his written letters, as the Indian Govern
ment knows well, suffer from any dearth of a hyperbole
which if sometimes florid, is always artistic, and which,
though commonly crusted with the* sugar of compliment,
is suspected of occasionally but half concealing the
barbed shaft of sarcasm. No one who converses with the
Ameer or who hears him state his own views can fail to
carry away the impression that he has been in contact with
an intellectual force of no mean order and has met a most
remarkable man. It should be added that this ruler, who
is probably more profoundly and more reasonably feared
by those who have crossed his path or are his enemies
than any other living potentate, and, who like Attila the
Hun, has been a veritable “ scourge of God ” to his
adversaries, appears to possess the faculty of enlisting
the devotion of those with whom he is brought into most
intimate contact. In this inner circle those who respect
him revere him; those .‘who like him love him ; those
who are his servants become his slaves.
GREAT BRITAIN AND PERSIA.
Mr. Curzon set out to view Persia from an
Englishman’s point of view, and from the point
of view more particularly of an English
politician. His book on Persia is primarily a
political work, for ho attaches a vast impor
tance to the part the kingdoms and princi
palities of Central Asia are capable of playing
in the destinies of the East :—
Turkestan, Afghanistan, Transcaspia, Persia- to many
these names breathe only a sense oi utter remoteness, or a
memory of strange vicissitudes and of moribund romance.
To me, I confess, they arc pieces on a chess board upon
which is being played uiil a game fur the dominion of Lb-., j
vvorld. The future of Great Britain, according to this
view, will be decided, not in Europe, not even upon
the . seas and oceans that are swept by her flag,
or in the Greater Britain that has 'been called
into existence by her offspring, but in the continent whence
our.emigrant stock first came, and to which, as conquerors,
their descendants have returned. Without India the
British Empire could not exist. The possession of India
is the inalienable badge of sovereignty in the Eastern
hemisphere. Since India was known its lords have been
masters of half the world. The impulse that drew an
Alexander or Titnur, and a Baber eastwards to the Indus
was the same that in the sixteenth century gave the
Portuguese that brief lease of sovereignty whose" outworn
shiboleths. they have ever since continued to mumble 5
that early in the last century made a Shah of Persia for ten
years the arbiter of the Ea*st ,• that all but gave to France
the empire which stouter hearts and a more propitious
star have conferred upon our own people ; that to this
dav stirs the ambition and quickens the pulses of the
Colossus of the North. In the increasing importance with
which domestic politics are invested in our own public life,
and in the prevailing tendency to turn westwards, and to
seek both for the examples and arena of statesmanship ,2 if
amid youuger peoples and a white-skinned race, room may
yet. be found for one whose fancy is haunted by “ the
ancient of days,” who reminds his countrymen that, while
longer the arbiters of the West they remain the trustees
for the East, and are the rulers of the second largest dark-
skinned population in the world ; and who argues that no-
safeguard should be omitted by which may be secured in
perpetutity that which is the noblest achievement of the
science of civil rule that mankind has yet bequeathed to man.
RUSSIAN DESIGNS ON PERSIA.
Starting from this standpoint, the view of so
eminent a man as Sir H. Rawlinson that Persia
placed geographically between Europe and India
can hardly fail to play an important part in the
future history of the East, Mr. Curzon enters
into an exhaustive examination of the
political, commercial, and social condition
of the country. The point to which most
interest attaches now is his view of her
foreign policy, which mainly consists of her
relation with the two great Asiatic Powers,
with both of which she is on terms of ambiguous
friendship which the fears of either party alone
prevent from assuming a less dignified expres
sion. Upon the trend of Russian policy Mr.
Curzon has no doubt :—'
Firstly, then, as to Russia’s claims and pretensions in
Persia. I venture without fear of contradiction upon the
statement that these are distinctly, and in parts avowedly,
hostile. Surveying the history of the present century, we
see that, piece by piece, partly by open war and partly by
furtive nibbling, Russia, has appropriated more and more of
Persian soil.
And after drawing attention to the strength
of Russia’s position he adds :—
What, then, are the designs which this commanding
position, and the power of bullying that it confers, are
being utilised to promote? There is no concealment either
as to their character or their scope. Russia regards Persia
as a power that may temporarily be tolerated, that may
even require sometimes to be honoured or caressed, but
that in the long run is irretrievably doomed. She regards
the future partition of Persia as a prospect scarcely less
certain of fulfilment than the achieved partition of Poland ;
and she has already clearly made up her own mind as to
the share which she will require in the division of the
spoils.
A RUSSIAN PORT IN THE GULF.
Such, in Mr. Curzon’s opinion, are the designs
of Russia upon Azerbaijan, Gilan, Mazanderau,
and Khorasan ; but this by no means limits her
desire for territorial expansion :—
But Russia’s appetite for territorial aggrandisement does
not stop here. Not content with a spoil that would rob
1 ersia at one sweep of the entire northern half of her
dominions, she turns a longing eye southwards, and yearns
for an outlet upon the Persian Gulf and in the Indian
Ocean. The movements that I have previously sketched
along the souch and east borders of Khorasan, the activity
of her agency in regions far beyond the legitimate radius
ot an influence restricted to North Persia, her tentative
experiments in the direction of Seistan, are susceptible
of no other interpretation than a design to shake the
influence of Great Britain in South Persia, to dispute
the control of the Indian Seas, and to secure the
long-songht base for naval operations in the East. This
can only be accomplished in either of two directions, by a
war with Turkey and the capture of Baghdad, or by a
semi-peaceful advance through Persia to the Gulf. Of
these processes the second is the more hopeful and the less
risky, and there is a fascination about its beckoning linger
that draws the Russians irresistibly on.
A SEVERE CONDEMNATION.
Air. Curzon, who was so tolerant of Russia’s
advance in Central Asia, can find no palliating
circumstances for this scarcely veiled aggression
against the declining power of the Shah :—
For my own part, while I hesitate to pronounce a de
cided opinion upon a foreign policy which mnly perhaps find
recommendations or excuses that I have overlooked, and
w hue I admit that Russia is free to play her own game in
the manner that she thinks best, I yet hold that her attitude
\\ ith reference, to the internal politics of Persia can be
seriously arraigned, and that she can in no wise escape
condemnation for the resistance that she consistently offers
to any proposal that has for its object the genuine require
ments of distressed and backward country. Neither
can I feel any sympathy with Russia in her lust
tor territorial aggrandisement at the expense of Persia in
the North. Herein l am actuated by no narrow prejudice
or national jealousy, inasmuch as I am profoundly convinced
the England neither wants to possess, nor ought to
possess, nor ever will possess those territories herself.
Nor am I a tainted witness as regards Itussia in the
East ; for in my previous work I have admitted, and I here
repeat the admission, that in her career of Central Asian
conquest she has, though by devious and often dishonourable
means, achieved a successful and salutary end ; and that she
deserves the praise due to those who substitute order for
anarchy, and are the pioneers even of a crude civilisation
I have wished her well in Transcaspia and Tnrkistan, and
I would be a party to no movement for disturbing her
rule. But I do not say the same of Persia. On the contrary,
the very pleas which have extenuated and justified liussian
advance elsewhere in Central Asia, and which she is always
quoting in self-defence, are wanting here.
Still more strongly do these observations apply to her
designs upon South Persia and the Persian Gnlf. Here not
only, would any Englishman protest in the interests of
Persia but any English Government would be bound to
protest tn the interests of Graat Britain. No plea that the
most sophistical of logicians could devise can bo advanced
to justify any such proceeding. The safety of India, which
is the first duty of Great Britain, the Pa* Britannica that now
reigns in the Southern Seas in consequence of her temperate
control, the sacrifices that have been made by her in the
pursuance of that end, tiieutter abseuceof an}- Persian inter
ests for thousands of miles, the perfect ability of Persia in
theseparts to look after herself, are incontrovertible argu
ments against any such aggression. It can only be prose
cuted in the teeth of international morality in defiance of
civilised opinion, and with the ultimate certainty of a
war with this country that would ring from pole to pole.
WHAT SHOULD GREAT BRITAIN DO ?
Scornful is scarcely the word for Mr. Curzon’s
opinion of the policy of the English and Indian
Governments towards the Shah :—
The public opinion in this country and in India with regard
to I’ersian politics has been either at a white heat oi-°has
oAefdod into an ine.v.uupor. Wo have made treaties with
Persia imposing upon ourselves the most solemn, offensive,
and defensive obligations. When the occasion arose for
redeeming them, we have shirked the responsibility and
have subsequently bought our release from ilie self-iutiicled
tie. We have courted and waged war against the same
Persian sovereigns, we have both trained and routed the
Persian army, we have at once pampered and neglected the
Persian people. Our Persian policy,in each-successive stage,
whether of interest or apathy, has ever been characterised
by the note of exaggeration.
His own idea of the principles which should
guide British policy are :—
If then I were asked what is the policy of Great Britain
towards Persia, I should answer in the following terms :—
It is not now, nor at any time in this century has it been
one of territorial cupidity. England does not covet one
square foot of Persian soil. The Eighth and Tenth Com
mandments stand in| no danger of being violated by us.
In other words, the development of the .industrial and
material resources of Persia, the extension of her commerce,
the maintenance of her integrity, the rehabilitation of her
^trenffth. these, under the pressure, and by the aid of a
friendly alliance, are the objects of British policy. The time
for an offensive and defensive alliance has passed.
GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA.
FROM 1738 TO 1898.
Mr. Cruttenden 1738
Mr. Bradyll 1739
Mr. Forester 1716
Alexander Dawson 1749
Mr. Brawell 1750
William Fytche 1752
Roger Drake 1752
Colonel Robert Clive... 1758
J. Z. Holwell 1760
Henry Vansittart 17G0
John Spencer 1764
Lord Clive 1765
Harry Verelst 1767
John Cartier 1769
Warren Hastings 1772
Sir John Macpherson... 1785
Earl Cornwallis 1786
Sir John Shore, Bart... 1798
Sir Alured Clarke* 1798
Marquis Wellesley 1798
Marquis Cornwallisf... 1805
Sir George Hilary
Barlow, BartJ 1805
Earl of Minto 1807
Marquis of Hastings... 1813
John Adam* 1823
Earl Amherst 1823
Mr. B utter worth
Bay ley 1828
* Officiating. f Died at
J Confirmed, 11th July, 1806.
Nov., 1863. || Assassinated a
Lord William Caven
dish Bentinck 1828
Sir C. T. Metcalfe,
Bart* 1835
Earl Auckland 1836
Earl of Ellenborough.. 1842
Viscount Hardinge ... 1844
Marquis of jDalhousie. 1848
Lord Canning..-...., 1856
Earl of Elgin and Kin-
cardine§ 1862
Maj.-Genl. Hon. Sir
Robert Napier* ...... 18G3
Colonel Sir William
Denison* 1863
Sir John L. M. Law
rence 1864
Earl of Mayo|| 1869
The Hon’ble Mr. John
Strachey* 1872
Lord Napier of Mer-
chistoun* 1872
Lord Northbrook 1872
LordLytton 1876
Marquis of Ripon 1880
Earl of Dufferin 1884
Marquis of Lansdowne 1888
Earl of Elgin and Kin
cardine 1894
Tiic Hon. G. N. Curzon 1898
Gazipur, 5th Oct., 1805.
§ Died at Dharmsala, 20th
Port Blair, 8th Feb., 1872.
Brigadier-GeneralMUney, Commanding at Allah
abad, proceeds on sixty days’ leave on the 15th,
when Colonel Kingston, 10th Bengal Infantry,
will command the District.
General Sir Perim Symons, Commanding Sir-
hind District, proceeds on three months’ privilege
leave on the 10th instant, Colonel Babington,
Assistant Adjutant-General, taking over tempor
ary command of the station.
Colonel Pole-Carew, Coldstream Guards, will
succeed General Nicholson as Deputy Adjutant
General, Punjab Command,
'km
THE VICEROY-ELECT.
PUBLIC OPINION ON THE APPOINTMENT.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)
SIMLA, August 11.
The appointment of Mr. Curzon has been
received here with considerable surprise, as until
the last few days Lord Balfour of Burleigh was
regarded as far the most probable selection. Th e
announcement has also been received with mixed
feelings in official circles, as a majority had
generally declined to believe the appointment
possible. There are many, though, who think he
will prove a success, as he is undoubtedly much-
travelled, clever, and well up in the affairs of his
party. He is, perhaps, young for the position,
but he recently visited India and Afghanistan, he
has long studied Eastern questions, and will, it
is probable, he a warm supporter of the forward
polifiy hitherto followed by his predecessors. He
married Miss Leiter of Chicago, sister to young
Lei ter of \\ heat Corner” fame, and considerable
interest is felt here as to the probable constitu
tion of his personal staff. The news of Mr. Curzon’s
appointment only reached Lord Elgin this
morning.
Latek.
Mr. Curzon will start with a decided advantage
over most men who have boon appointed Viceroy,
as he has given so much study to the questions of
Asiatic politics. It is a curious coincidence that
the original plan for the Government House,
Calcutta, was taken from the plan of Kedleston
Hall in Derbyshire, the house belonging to Mr,
Curzon’s family. Mrs. Curzon is about 23 or 24
years of age, beautiful, cultivated, and attractive.
She is-reported to he a good horsewoman and a
keen sportswoman.
Calcutta, August U-
The Englishman says The appointment of
Mr. Curzon may cause some surprise, hut it
ought not to cause any regret or disappointment
to those who have the best interests of this country
at heart. Of all possible men for the appointment,
he has the greatest knowledge of Eastern as
compared with Indian polities, and it happens at
the present time that it is no longer possible for
India to throw on the Home Government the whole
burden of managing iter relation with the outside
world. Mr. Curzon is possessed of exceptional
knowledge of both French and Russian Asia.
He will he well qualified to control the Foreign
Department of Government, and not having
declared partisanship on the currency question,
should be a strong man to hold an even balance
between the contending parties.
'The Englishman concludes While this wretched
plague is with us there may arise from time to
time issues fraught with the greatest danger, not
only from the spread of the disease, but from
fanaticism fanned by ignorant leaders of the
population. Mr. Curzon has already shown him
self a strong man, able to steer hi's way through
most troublous waters. He will not, we may he
sure, he .turned by popular clamour -nto directions
of weakness. At the same time his books show
him to be a man pervaded by very strong sympathy
towards the customs and prejudices of Asiatics.
Our native brethren need not, therefore, he
alarmed. We may be sure that the coming
Viceroy will respect all the best traditions laid
down by departed Viceroys regarding the relation
ship that ought to obtain between the rulers and
the ruled.
DELHI, August 11.
The Morning Post says :—A more excellent
appointment could not possibly have been made.
India has had enough of figure-head Viceroys
with no pronounced views on any one subject,
and willing at all time to degenerate into verit
able marionettes. We shall have in Mr. Curzon
a thoroughly practical ruler. The new Governor-
General will formulate his own policy instead of
placidly acquiescing in that of his advisers, and
ho may he trusted to steer the ship of State
rather than walk the deck and leave the rudder
in the hands of the crew.
THE PROPOSED CENTRAL
STATION FOR CALCUTTA.
(FBOM OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
CALCUTTA, August u.
A letter has been addressed by the Committee
of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce to the
Secretary to the Government of Bengal, Railway
Department, relative to the proposals for con
structing a bridge over the Hooghly, a Central
Station, &c. The Committee regret that they
have not been able to reply earlier, hut the
magnitude and importance of the proposals made,
and the bearing they might have, if carried out, on
numerous different interests, necessitated a
reference to the members of a Chamber and
the Associations affiliated therewith. The
Committee recognise the fact that a Central
Railway Station would he desirable from many
points of view. It would he a great convenience
to the large number of suburban passergers, and
indirectly it would benefit the city by opening out
congested areas, and by making suburbs more easily
accessible, and residence in them more feasible. It
might also be the solution of the present difficulty
in regard to a site for the terminal station
of the Bengal-Nagpore Railway in Calcutta. At
the same time, many important questions are
involved, such as the effects of the proposed bridge
on the course of the river, the cost of the whole
design, and the incidence of a terminal tax on all
produce brought into Calcutta by joint lines.
This tax, which appeal’s to the Committee to he
inevitable, may seriously handicap the trade of
the port, and the Committee consider the whole
question should be referred to a committee to be
appointed by Government, sufficiently representa
tive^ to embody all the interests concerned. This
opinion is shared by the members of the Chamber,
who have up to the present expressed their views
on the matter