operations by Russia against the Turkomans;" that "even a tacit acquiescence in the statements and conclusions of the memorandum by the Russian Government may lead to future inconvenience;" and he formally claimed "a liberty of action in all contingencies and in all quarters for the British Government as full as that claimed by the Government of Russia."
The representations made by the Conservative Government in 1875 had the effect of arresting direct and overt action, although the Russian officers in Asia continued to intrigue and plan further operations as before. The advance by the Attrek was for the time stopped, and Russian energy was diverted into regions more remote from European surveillance. It was to provide us with certain information, instead of the more or less reliable rumours which from time to time reached us of Russian doings in the Khanates and on the Balkh border, that Lord Salisbury endeavoured to obtain the appointment of British agents in Afghanistan. We have already seen how, through the inability of Lord Northbrook's Government to influence the Ameer, who had been bitterly alienated from British interests by the policy of the Liberal Government, Lord Salisbury's instructions fell through. Had we had a British representative at Herat and Candahar in 1876, there would have been but little possibility that General Kauffmann would have presumed to open up these relations with the Cabul durbar which speedily led to the ruin of Shere Ali. We would have had no Russian mission to Cabul, with the war which was inevitably bound to flow from it. And, what more immediately concerns us at present, it is very improbable that we should have had the Russians occupying the passes commanding the Herat country; or at all events we would have been better prepared for meeting them when they made their appearance. The situation now confronting us only preaches another homily on the penny-wise-and-pound-foolish principle which colours all Liberal foreign policy, which makes Ministers ignore and evade danger at first appearance, only to have to grapple with it, nil they will they, when its forces have been developed to their fullest.
With Lord Salisbury at the India Office and Lord Lytton at the head of the Indian Government, energetic attempts were made to stem the tide of the coming evil, by endeavouring on the one hand to arrest the attempts which General Kauffmaim's agents were making to insinuate themselves into Afghan politics and secure a footing in the country, and on the other to recall the Ameer to the obligations of his alliance with India. But for both these objects their best efforts were ineffectual. Ameer Shere Ali Khan too bitterly resented the treatment which he had received from the Duke of Argyll and Lord Northbrook, and was already too implicated with Russia to listen to Lord Lytton's proffers and counsels. From the side of St Petersburg we could do equally little. The shadow of a Russo-Turkish war had fallen upon Europe, and the Liberals were stirring the country to sympathy with Russia as the champion of the oppressed principalities of the Porte, and as the deliverer who was to turn the "unspeakable Turk" out of Europe "bag and baggage." The old taunt of Russophobia was freely hurled at any one who even then ventured to say that Russia was rapidly taking up a position in Asia which would enable her to make her influence
