'Russia, India and the Persian Gulf' [‎21r] (41/46)

37
Proceedings of the East India Association.
emphatically to Lord Roberts. He had been especially interested in the
point Mr. Rees had sought to make of the entirely imaginary futility of
Alexander’s invasion of India. Alexander undertook the expedition partly
for glory, partly for commercial inquiry and scientific research, and chiefly
for the propagation of Hellenic culture, and altogether he found it a most
enjoyable Jameson’s Raid on an extended scale, and, fortunately, entirely
successful. He had dealt with that question at length in the report in the
Journal of the Society of Arts of a paper read in 1901 before the Society by
General Sir Thomas Holdich on “Alexander’s Expedition to India” and of
the discussion thereon. He did not like nursing suspicions of any foreign
Power, but he happened to be the editor of the English translation of Prince
Ookhtomsky’s “ Travels of the Czarewitch,” published by Messrs. Archibald
Constable, and in going through it he had been literally amazed by the
audacity, the absolutely brazen effrontery, with which all the way from
Alexandria to Singapore—while the young Czarewitch, the present Emperor
of Russia, was enjoying the hospitality of this country—the Prince discussed
the question of the reversionary interest of Russia in India. After such a
revelation it was impossible to ignore what were the sinister hopes and
aspirations and intentions with regard to India of the Russian statesmen,
or of some of them, in the immediate and close intimacy of the Czar. But
he in no way shared the despair of some of the speakers of our yet being
able to hold our own in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Red Sea, and Indian Ocean.
Looking back on all our past history, he found that God had always been
with us, and the strongest conviction of his soul was that God was with us
still, and always would be. Where should we have been to-day but for
the Jameson Raid?—an entirely providential act, outside all the calculations,
the very conceptions, of our statesmen. He was deeply grateful to Mr.
Rees for his most interesting and instructive paper, and he must add, also,
to Sir Charles Dilke for his masterful exposition of the problem of our
present and future policy toward Russia, with reference to the defence of
the North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. of India.
The Chairman, in seconding the vote of thanks, observed that the true
strategical doctrine was that you could only defend your possessions against
attack by operations in all parts of the world; and, curiously enough,
although Sir George Birdwood was a man of peace, it had been left to him
to take them into those larger considerations. He differed from Sir George
Birdwood with regard to the suggestion that Russia was vulnerable in the
Caucasus. That was a thing of the past. But there was this fact which
would keep them from lying awake—that Russia, while she was a few years
ago almost invulnerable to our arms in the event of war, had become more
vulnerable than she was—not in the immediate neighbourhood of India,
but in that part of the world to which Russian energy was at present princi
pally directed. He doubted w r hether Mr. Lynch would see so much of
Russian energy in Persia in the next few years as he had anticipated. His
own belief was that the energy which she displayed in the direction of
Pekin pointed to the true objective of Russia. Her operations in Man
churia, Mongolia, and Northern China made her more vulnerable than she
had hitherto been, which went to show that when people took on them-