Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/111

Russia's military strength m central asia. 91 the internal administration of affairs. We have seen how civil enterprises are permitted to languish, and how the material well-being of the province is neg- lected, because the grand desideratum in the eyes of the governing party is military efficiency ; it becomes necessary then to inquire whether the Russian army in Central Asia can be held to be efficient ? Is it in what may be termed fighting condition ? Are its cadres full, its reserves actual or only imaginary, its supply departments in working order ? It is clear that if the reply to these questions were in the negative, the Russian Government would not have an excuse to offer for such gross neglect or for their indifference to other matters. It has disregarded things civil and peaceful, in order that matters military and warlike may receive every attention ; and if the latter are not in the most perfect condition, it is ob- vious that the indictment against the administration is a very severe one indeed. It is not improbable that the indictment will be some day preferred. There is a growing dislike in Russia to the military penalties which accompany the privileges of Russian citizenship, and there are signs of the times that the day is approach- ing when the nation will raise a protesting voice against them. These penalties, which consist over and above the law of conscription — a very legitimate law and ab- solutely necessary to all nations with a land frontier — of the military repression of the rights of public speech and of the freedom of the press, are aggravated by the knowledge, which is becoming wide-spread through- out all circles of Russian society, that the military