'Russia, India and the Persian Gulf' [‎3v] (6/46)

2
The Western Frontiers of India.
veniently classed with the North-West, and so far as it is
available for attack or defence from the sea, and in respect
of communications with the interior and the shore, with the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Indeed, the most recent writers on the
border-land dwell on the “ passes that beggar description,”
“ the distances of 50 miles, with not the slightest sign of life,”
“ the tiny villages kept alive by springs tapped in distant
hills,” which lie between comparatively fertile Seistan, and
the objective of an invading army on the Indian frontier,
protected by our dominating position at Quetta. Neither
Sir Thomas Holdich nor Major Sykes describe a possible
path for the successors of the Macedonian madman,
whose coast route is also impracticable for modern armies.
Even our new Quetta Nushki-Robat line is, as Professor
Vambery says, a “waterless, grassless steppe. The Gulf,
with such communications as have it for their base, is of all
the most important; for a hostile Power, with a port on its
margin, might, if sufficiently strong by land and sea, entirely
disregard all the defences of the border hills from Ehitral
to Quetta, upon which so much treasure has, in that case, to
little purpose, been lavished. I do not personally know
any Russian author who has dealt with the subject of
an attack through Afghanistan, except Prince Ukhtomsky,
who accompanied the present Czar throughout his travels
in the East, and has subsequently occupied an important
position in the Russian world, and was at any rate a pro
minent factor in the recent occurrences in China, in which,
owing to our South African engagements, we played a part
in no way adequate to our past traditions and former com
mercial supremacy. The Prince at any rate will serve my
purpose. He says, “ The bonds uniting our part of Europe
with Iran and Turan, and through them with India and
China, are so ancient and lasting that we do not fully com
prehend their meaning, and the duties they entail on us
in our home and foreign policy.” Comprehension of these
duties has increased since these words were written in 1890.
Again, Ukhtomsky writes, “ There is not the slightest doubt