Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/119

EUSSIA*S MILITARY STRENGTH IN CENTRAL ASIA. 99 in the task of carrying on an extensive campaign south of the Hindoo Koosh. The assistance that Khiva could give would be of a much vaguer character ; but even from the khan of that dismembered state Eussia would expect some service. At the least Khiva could provide guides for the desert of Kara Kum, and a considerable amount of labour for the construction of roads, and other necessary undertakings. The Kirghiz nomads would also be called upon to contribute their quota. These are the only allies Russia would find within her fron- tier, and on several of them it would be impossible for her to place implicit reliance. Yefc her first line con- sists of them alone and the small nucleus of twenty thousand Russian troops. Assuredly, the advocate of " masterly inactivity" will exclaim, no danger to India from such a foe as this ! This is the effective total, available for offensive purposes, of the territorial army of Turkestan. In- cluding all his immediate reserves and allies, General Kaufmann could not reach the northern bank of the Oxus with a greater force than forty thousand men, of whom only one half would be Russians. He would have left in his rear, too, a very inadequate garrison, and he could never feel certain that a rising in Kho- kand, or an emeute in Samarcand, would not paralyse his strength at some critical moment. The conclusion, therefore, at which we must arrive is that the Tur- kestan army, however efficient, is quite unequal to the task of crossing the Hindoo Koosh in face of an army of anything like equal numbers. It can dispose 7*