Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
Page 2
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, whoso 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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