714 



RUSSIA. 



SALVADOR. 



the Government was brought up again, yet no de- 

 cided stand was taken, because Egyptian affairs 

 engrossed public attention. The responsible 

 ministers professed satisfaction, recognized the 

 necessity the Russians experienced of subduing 

 and absorbing the robber tribes on their border, 

 and praised their services in suppressing slavery 

 in central Asia. Nevertheless, they showed an 

 anxiety that had little in common with the 

 Russophile sentiments of Gladstone in opposi- 

 tion, when he welcomed the neighborhood of 

 a civilized power in Asia. While the Russians 

 pushed on their outposts to Old Sarakhs, the 

 Liberal Government adopted the Tory project 

 of a strategic railroad to Quetta, massed troops 

 at the Bolan Pass, established an elaborate civil 

 administration in the Quetta district, sent a 

 formidable punitive expedition against disor- 

 derly tribes in southern Afghanistan in order 

 to revive English prestige, and supplied their 

 paid allies in Cabul and Candahar with fresh 

 gifts of arms and money. They opened nego- 

 tiations with the Russian Government for a 

 delimitation of the Afghan frontier, in order to 

 hold Russia to a definite line in the observance 

 of her engagements not to enter the dominions 

 of the Afghan Ameers. Preliminary negotia- 

 tions were begun about eighteen months before, 

 but were discontinued by the English them- 

 selves. The St. Petersburg authorities agreed 

 to an international commission for the delimi- 

 tation of the boundary for the satisfaction of 

 England, though a technical demarkation was 

 out of the question in the absence of any definite 

 exercise of authority by the Cabul Ameers in 

 that region, or even of a geographical knowl- 

 edge of the country. Sir Peter Lumsden, the 

 English commissioner, set out from England 

 for Afghanistan by way of Persia, while a nu- 

 merous staff of civil and military assistants with 

 a large escort advanced to meet him from In- 

 dia. The Russians were determined to claim 

 all the level country inhabited by the roving 

 Turcomans up to the foot of the Parapamisus 

 hills. The English wished to preserve the line 

 that they have put down on the maps as the 

 boundary of Afghanistan. They were particu- 

 larly anxious about the frontier in the neigh- 

 borhood of Herat. Penjdeh, on the Murgab, 

 is an important strategic point, which com- 

 mands .the approach to Herat. The English, 

 in order to secure the last defense to the " key 

 of India," instigated the Ameer of Cabul to 



occupy this place with a military force before 

 proceeding to the delimitation. From the time 

 when the Russians annexed Merv, the Afghan 

 rulers began to concentrate military forces in the 

 Herat province, and to coerce the independent 

 Uzbek and Turcoman tribes. Penjdeh and the 

 upper valley .of the Murgab were occupied by 

 the forces of the Ameer in March. But Penj- 

 deh is a Turcoman town, and the Russian Gov- 

 ernment, which had an army of 35,000 men in 

 Turkistan, could not permit its new subjects 

 to be despoiled. When Sir Peter Lumsden 

 arrived, he found no Russian commissioner 

 there to meet him. While he was waiting on 

 the Heri Rud for his colleague, M. Lessar, who 

 had not yet left St. Petersburg, the Russian 

 military commander advanced his outposts to 

 the important strategical points of Pul-i-Kha- 

 tum and Pul-i-Khista within what is colored on 

 the maps as Afghan territory. The British Gov- 

 ernment demanded explanations, and finally ad- 

 dressed an ultimatum to the Russian Govern- 

 ment, calling for the withdrawal of the Russian 

 troops beyond Sarakhs, pending the result of 

 the boundary commission. The Russians re- 

 fused, and both countries prepared for war. 

 They declared that they had not violated their 

 agreement, had not invaded Afghanistan, but 

 that the Afghans were aggressors, and de- 

 manded the evacuation of Penjdeh. 



Difficulties with China. The ascendency of the 

 war party in China caused trouble in the rela- 

 tions between Russia and the Celestial Empire. 

 The demarkation of the frontier line in Kuldja 

 was duly arranged in a protocol signed by Chi- 

 nese plenipotentiaries in May. The treaty of 

 Kuldja was openly violated, however, by the 

 Chinese authorities, who prevented the Mus- 

 sulmans that had elected Russian allegiance 

 from trading in the Chinese frontier towns 

 with the exception of Kashgar. The Russian 

 Government addressed representations to Pe- 

 king, which were answered by the local au- 

 thorities with a command that all Russian 

 Mussulmans should quit the Chinese towns at 

 a fortnight's notice. Heavy duties that were 

 placed by the Russian Ministry of Finance on 

 teas coming across the border were removed 

 because the Chinese refused to trade altogether. 

 Russia had 9,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and 3 

 batteries on the Amour, and about 18,000 in- 

 fantry, 9,000 Cossacks, and 48 mountain and 

 mounted batteries in Kuldja. 



S 



SALVADOR, a republic of Central America; 

 area, 18,720 square kilometres; population, 

 553,882. The capital is San Salvador ; popula- 

 tion, 13,274. 



Government. The President is Dr. Rafael 

 Zaldivar y Lazo (elected in May, 1876, re-elect- 

 ed Dec. 22, 1883). The Cabinet was formed of 

 the following ministers: Foreign Affairs and 

 Justice, Sefior S. Gallegos; War and Finance, 



Sefior P. Melendez; Public Instruction, Sefior 

 D. Lopez. During the President's eight months' 

 trip to the United States and Europe, the Presi- 

 dent of the National Assembly, Sefior Angel 

 Guirola, filled the presidential chair. 



President Zaldivar arrived in New York in 

 April, went to Paris and Madrid, and returned 

 via New York to his country in July, arriving 

 there on August 17. In September there was 



