Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
Page 20
I
will say a word in conclusion which relates to what is
popularly called the Central Asian Question. Of the
cross-roads imperfectly shown in the map before you, I
think one of the most important is that which has Serakhs
for its centre. This place, if as well supplied with
water as its nearness to the Tejeiid leads us to suppose,
is of great value to Persia, and no pains or expense
should be spared to make it a strong outpost. Of course
there should be a capable Governor at Mash-had, and one
capable of dealing with the Turkmen
without room for interference by other and more powerful
Governments. But Serakhs is not the last or most remote
of the Persian outposts on the North East. Merv is hers
also by natural position, as should be the whole region
of the lower Murghab; unless, indeed, Afghanistan had
been powerful enough to have ruled the extreme valley of
a river which arises among her native mountains. Whatever
the geographical or scientific views on the territorial
dispositions of rivers, it should be a universal, as it
is a natural theory that the country in which a river
raises, and through which it runs its main course, should
not be cut off possession at its month. The Danube does
not offer a parallel case, for it passes through many
nationalities ; but let us take the Volga, the Seine, the
Dnieper, the Thames — the intrusions of a foreign
power at the embouchure of any of these, is too
impossible a contingency to contemplate for an instant.
The desert of Asia is not unlike the sea of Europe; its
extent and character constitute it an admirable boundary
between States; and the annexation by Persia of the basin
of the Helmand, when the whole rise and progress of that
river has been in Afghanistan, is one of those results
which political revolutions have brought about in seeming
opposition to the provisions of nature. In like manner
any attempt to annex Merv from the Caspian, Aral, or Oxus,
could only be instigated by the ambition of barbarism or
the recklessness of a wholly selfish policy. Merv, if not
independent, or too far from the sources and intermontane
career of the Murghab to connect it with Afghanistan, is
clearly Persian and part of Khorasan.
As Herat is the supposed key to India, so Merv is the
supposed key to Herat. In considering the approach to
this quarter from the north, we must not forget the
present political as the permanent geographical situation
of Bukhara, a place from which there is also a road to Herat
of less than COO miles. Vambery is an admirable referee
on this subject, and should be carefully studied by those
interested. Both these roads cross the Paropamisus, a
barrier which should be an efficient, as it is a natural
one. That which I have had the honor of detailing to you
may not be impracticable to artillery or any other arm
with energy, ability, and will to aid and direct ; but
foreign invasion in these countries is beset with
difficulties, and it is a question whether, upon the
whole, they are not rather increased than removed by
civilization. Nadir Shah did not march to India with
modern appliances, but neither had he, on the other hand,
the physical encumbrances or moral scruples that would
fall to the lot of existing commanders.1
1 If I have avoided expressing any more decided
political opinions on what may not inaptly be termed the
"question of the day," it is because such
expression might be here considered irrelevant or out of
place. At the same time, I would take the
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