AFGHANISTAN. 



of the Caspian Sea, to propose the latter; nor 

 were the English interested in defining the line 

 bv fixed landmarks, supposing as they did that 

 the fierce brigand tribes of the desert formed 

 an insurmountable obstacle to the approach of 

 Kus*ia in that direction. The districts of Akt- 

 rha, >ir-i-Pul, Maimene, Shibergan, and And- 

 khoi were recognized as belonging to Afghan- 

 i-tan; but westward of the latter point no 

 frontier line was indicated in the agreement. 



When the not altogether "voluntary" sub- 

 mission of the Merv Turkomans, effected in 

 disregard of the assurance given years before, 

 disquieted the English people, the Russian Cabi- 

 net revived the proposal of a joint delimitating 

 commission in the spring of 1884. The head 

 men of the Sarik and Salor tribes about the 

 name time took the oath of allegiance. This 

 brought the last confines of Turkomania under 

 the scepter of the White Czar, and made his 

 dominions conterminous with the province of 

 Herat. The Russian proposition to survey " the 

 Afghan frontier from Khoja-Saleh to the Per- 

 sian frontier in the neighborhood of Sarakhs" 

 was accepted by the London Cabinet. Before 

 negotiations relative to the joint commission 

 were concluded, the Afghan Ameer sent a mili- 

 tary force to occupy the Sarik town of Penjdeh. 

 All the English maps of recent years, excepting 

 one prepared for the India office to represent 

 especially the boundary of Persia, which draws 

 the Afghan frontier south of Penjdeh, give the 

 boundary as a vague, very slightly incurved 

 line running from a point on the Heri Rnd, 

 just above Sarakhs, to Khoja-Saleh. This line 

 was followed in the Russian staff maps. Yet 

 the only official definition of the boundary was 

 that embodied in the Anglo-Russian agreement 

 of 1872-73, which bound Russia to respect the 

 territories actually ruled at the time by Shere 

 AH. The oasis of Penjdeh was then in the pos- 

 aesftion of the independent Sarik Turkomans, 

 while the country to the west, including the 

 district of Badghis, which extends to the Bor- 

 khut spur and the Paropamisus, was uninhabit- 

 ed. The only district north of the Paropami- 

 eos range occupied by Afghan subjects was the 

 conntry of the Jemshidis, on the head- waters of 

 the Murghab, about Kala Nau. The same con- 

 ditions exinted at the time of the delimitation 



khut spur, between the Murghab and the Heri 

 Rud rivers, first opened to peaceful occupation 

 by the suppression of the Tekke robbers who 

 formerly overran this district in their incur- 

 sions into Persia. 



When M. de Giers informed, Sir Edward 

 Thornton in 1882 that Russia had no intention 

 of advancing to Merv and Sarakhs, he. at the 

 same time impressed upon him the importance 

 of inducing his Government to agree upon a 

 definite boundary-line from Khoja-Saleh to 

 the Persian frontier in the neighborhood of 

 Sarakhs. This appeal, subsequently repeated 

 both in St. Petersburg and in London, was 

 totally neglected by the English Government. 

 Meanwhile Abdurrahman Khan, having con- 

 solidated his rule in Herat and north of the 

 Hindoo-Koosh, betrayed a disposition to en- 

 croach upon lands lying outside the line to 

 which Russia considered that he was confined 

 by the agreement of 1872. In the autumn of 

 1883 he captured Shugnan. Russia thereupon 

 moved upon Merv and Sarakhs in the spring 

 of the following year. The English Govern- 

 ment then began to press in their turn for a 

 settlement of the boundary. During the nego- 

 tiations Abdurrahman seized upon Penjdeh. 

 whereupon the Russians made another counter- 

 move to Sariyazi and Pul-i-Khatum, trans- 

 gressing the line to which they had virtually 

 agreed on the Heri Rud as a check to the 

 Ameer's invasion of their sphere of influence at 

 Penjdeh, and in the petty khanates that were 

 dependencies of Bokhara. 



The Delimitation Commission. The British Gov- 

 ernment eagerly grasped the opportunity af- 

 forded by the hitherto neglected proposal of 

 the Russian ministry to fix the three hundred 

 or more miles of boundary left unsettled in the 

 line of Russia's recent advances, which seemed 

 to threaten Herat, long regarded as the u key 

 of India." The latest Russian acquisition, Sa- 

 rakhs, a strong position on the Heri Rud, in 

 the " no-man's-land " on the Persian frontier, 

 appeared to Englishmen to have no other mo- 

 tive than to creep within striking distance of 

 Herat. The extension of the Russian strategic, 

 railroad from Kizil Arvat to Askabad, and the 

 rapid development of commercial and military 

 activity in Turkomania, frightened the Liberal 



negotiations of 1884, except that the Salor Government in England out of their policy of 



lana bad settled in the pasture-lands of " Tnoafoi-w inn/.*;*^*^ T^^:^ * t,^ ^ 



the Heri Rud valley, between the Borkhut 

 rnonnuins and Sarakhs, since the suppression 

 of the Tekke raiders, and the head men of the 



Sarik * of Penjdeh had recently accepted the 

 rule of the Czar, which was acknowledged also 

 the Salors. Before the forcible occupation 



masterly inactivity." Indian troops were 

 massed in the newly acquired districts in Be- 

 loochistan, British authority was imposingly 

 displayed in Kelat, punitive expeditions were 

 carried out against the unruly tribes of south- 

 ern Afghanistan, and the Sibi-Quetta Railroad, 



U ,, UV1V/U torn up by the Liberals after it was partially 

 *Z21*& lobby the Ameer's troops laid by their predecessors, was begun again 



in June, 1884, the extreme Afghan frontier post 

 on the Murphab was Bala Mnrghab. In Bad- 

 ghis and on the Heri Rud, north of the Borkhut 

 mountains, there were no Afghan settlements 



and pushed forward with all haste. The Brit- 

 ish Delimitation Commission was appointed at 

 once, and composed of an imposing list of 

 frontier and military experts and native of- 



swAWfeftraa 



of the 



