'Russia, India and the Persian Gulf' [‎21v] (42/46)

38 Proceedings of the East India Association.
selves enormous responsibility they could not do so without to some extent
increasing their vulnerability. Mr. Rees had special qualifications for the
task which he had undertaken. By his Persian scholarship, his work at
Calcutta in connection with the Viceroy’s Council, his travels in the Indian
North-West and in the Russian Empire, and, above all, by the alertness
and openness of his mind, Mr. Rees was peculiarly fitted to undertake
such an investigation as that on which he had that day invited them to
enter.
The resolution was put to the meeting and carried unanimously.
Mr. Rees, in reply, said he was aware of the existence of the book ot
Popowski to which Sir Charles referred, and had read it, but did not know
that it had been translated into English; and he had spoken of Ookhtomsky’s
book as being the only work translated into English relating to the Russian
invasion of which he knew. He did not think at that late hour it would
be agreeable to the company that he should deal with all the points which
had been raised. He had not meant to imply that he felt that the advanced
portions of the new North-Western Province would suffer by being brought
down to the level of the hill portions, but he did think it would be better
if the administration were a little less scientific in certain quarters, and in
all cases suited to the particular people concerned. When he had re
ferred to Russia in the Gulf he meant to say that he thought their presence
in the Gulf at all would be extremely inconvenient, and would very much
increase our difficulties. He was aware that at present Russia, happily,
was not in a position to command the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . He did not mean to
suggest that all the money spent on the frontier ought to have been put
into ships for the Indian Seas, but he thought more money had been spent
than was necessary in fortifying portions of a naturally almost impregnable
frontier. He entirely concurred with Sir Charles Dilke in what he had
said in regard to the manner in which our agents should specially inform
themselves of the subjects with which they had to deal, and he hoped that
in the future in civil employ, as in the army, it would be looked upon a
an additional advantage that an officer should take some pains to qualify
himself for the business to which he had to devote himself by acquire
ments over and above the officially required minimum. Mr. Lynch’s
speech had been one of extreme interest. It was, however, very much to
the point to remember what Major Pemberton had said : that although
armies cannot march across salt deserts, when you had a line of rail across
those deserts it was not so difficult to transport troops. Indeed, the salt
Kavir would be no obstacle in such a case. Referring to Mr. Lynch’s
theory of what he and Major Pemberton had called “ peaceful penetration,”
and to General Dunne’s question what had become of the Shah, he
thought that potentate, between “painless identification” in the north
and “ peaceful penetration ” on the south, was likely to experience the
fate of the substance which intervened between the upper and the nether
millstone. Indeed, the indebtedness of the King of Kings to Russia had
made him already as extinct a volcano as Demavend, whose cold, snowy
cone he saw daily from his palace windows. It must surely often suggest
to him the thought of the Amir in his “ Soliloquy,” “Shall I be the last