Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
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falls far short of the great
importance of the theme, and seems really to owe its
sustent&tion at all to startling telegrams, a
sensational article or volume, a speech in or out of
Parliament, or a Shah's visit, there is certainly no lack
of materials stored together in our libraries and
Institutions to ground, as well as to coach a tyro into a
respectable Oriental diplomatist ; and to this common
stock were there but added the contents of official
shelves and official map-rooms, I believe that England
could now show the world as much true and trustworthy
information on the political and physical geography of
the Khanates and Chinese Turkistan, as well as on Persia,
Afghanistan, and
Baluchistan, as is possessed by any nation in the world,
not excepting Russia. "Were it worth while, as it
may some day be thought, for Government to organize a
separate department of men and materiel for the conduct
and development of its Asiatic relations, exclusive of
British India and British Colonial possessions, but
inclusive of Turkey, Arabia, and Persia, perhaps also of
China and Japan, we might have a school of administrators
and executives, if not superior to all existing
continental establishments, at least not inferior to any.
That a consummation so devoutly to be wished, can be
attained without the pains and expense of separate
organization, or without borrowing an idea from
contemporary foreign practice, is to me problematical.
But we may take a hint from our neighbors without servile
imitation; and improvement and modification may be freely
exercised on the models with which they supply us.
A quarter of a century ago, about the period to which I
have already reverted, able politicians and excellent
explorers were to be found in the Indian services : men
ready to devote their lives to the State with a loyalty
worthy of more consideration than measured out by bare
results in the form of success or failure. Alexander
Burnes, Arthur Conolly, Leech, Lord, and Oxus Wood were
types of the class; one, whose members, though not all
professional soldiers, were, without exception, actuated
by a soldierly spirit. Travelers of this stamp, making light of the
barriers of the Hindu Kush and its offshoots, eagerly
emerged upon a new scene, and strong in civilized
energy and ambition, descended upon the little-explored
regions before them to leather to their country's honor
as their own, rich fruits of interesting knowledge for
the benefit of coming, as of present generations. In the
years 1839-40, this irruption of enterprising emissaries
from India reached its climax; and it can hardly be
supposed that the great Power overhanging the Central
Asian belt on the North could remain passively
contemplating the action of a rival European Power,
which, having under Providence become possessed of an
Empire in the far East, was utilizing the resources of
that distant possession, after so practical a fashion,
close to its own doors. Hence must be attributed the
counter-movement which, though it may not be said to have
caused, may be fairly held to have hastened the past
annexation of land, and more thorough absorption of power
in the no longer Independent Khanates. So rapid has been
progress in this direction that Khiva and Bokhara have
already suffered territorial confiscation, and Khokand is
clenched as in a vice. Our explorers have now not far to
go
| JBOC Note: Arthur Conolly was a British spy
executed in Bukhara in June 1842by order of
the Emir Nasrullah Khan |
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