6 



AFGHANISTAN. 



ion of the whole Turkoman nation would 

 meet with resistance, the St. Petersburg Gov- 

 ernment allowed Gen. Zelenoy to remain at 

 TiHLs and left the military authorities in Tur- 

 ki-tan to push on the Cossack outposts as far 

 M possible toward the limits of the Turkoman 

 country. Gen. Rosenbach, who was made 

 Governor-General of Turkistan in the place of 

 Gen. Tehernajeff after the annexation of Sa- 

 rakhs, in order to please the English, was now 

 superseded by the aggressive Komaroff. The 

 Russian lines were advanced before the arrival 

 of the British commissioners from Old Sarakhs, 

 which was occupied in July, 1884, to Pul-i- 

 Khatara in October and November, and on 

 the Murghab from Merv, where a garrison 

 was posted, in February, to Yolatan, at the 

 edge of the oasis, in September, and in No- 

 vember across the desert to Sariyazi. Subse- 

 quently the Russians occupied Pul-i-Khisti, on 

 the Kushk, south of Penjdeh, and Akrobat, on 

 the border of Badghis proper, and advanced 

 op the Heri Rud to Zulfikar Pass. 



Gen. Lumsden entered into a lively corre- 

 spondence with his superiors. The authorities 

 at Downing Street demanded explanations of 

 the delay in sending the Russian commission- 

 ers, and of the advance of the Russian lines. 

 A categorical demand was made that the Rus- 

 sian outposts should retire from the debatable 

 tone to their former positions pending the de- 

 limitation. To this the Russian Government 

 returned an absolute refusal on Feb. 24, 1885, 

 bat gave assurances that its officers had re- 

 ceived orders to avoid conflicts with the Af- 

 ghans, and declared that complications could 

 rise only if the Afghans attacked the Russian 

 posu. Sir Peter Lumsden then advised the 

 Afghans to maintain their present positions, 

 bat to abstain from offensive operations. The 

 British Government assumed a threatening at- 

 titude, and made preparations for war. The 

 Russian Government at this point offered as a 

 last concession to accept the Zulfikar- Akrobat- 

 Maruchak line of demarkation. The hasty de- 

 mand for the retirement of the Russian out- 

 posU, the English premier declared, when 

 afterward questioned, was allowed " to lapse." 

 On March 13, Mr. Gladstone announced on the 

 of M. de Giers's conciliatory assur- 

 ** the two governments had agreed 

 there should be no further advance of 

 tither the Rawian or the Afghan troops while 

 Mfotintions were in progress. As no 



mte agreement of the sort had been en- 

 l into. Lord Granville telegraphed to know 



i agreement or arrangement was accepted 



tt* Boartan Government. On March 17 

 came the reply ratifying the agreement, sub- 



t to a reservation" unless in the case of 

 some extraordinary reason "such, for in- 

 stance, as a disturbance at Penjdeh. This 

 " agreement," which had its origin in an in- 

 ferential construction of Russian dispatches 

 . Gladstone, and hence was, on second 

 thought, explained as an u arrangement," was 



after the acquiescence of the Russian Govern- 

 ment, magnified into a " sacred covenant." 



The Disputed District The debated region is 

 a tract in the shape of a wedge intervening be- 

 tween Afghanistan and Persia. The portion 

 principally in dispute is inclosed between the 

 Murghab and the Heri Rud rivers, and extends 

 from the Borkhut mountains to where the 

 desert proper begins, near Sarakhs and Yola- 

 tan. The entire region is without inhabitants, 

 except the Turkoman nomads, who pasture 

 their flocks there during a part of the year, and 

 some colonists planted by the Ameer of Af- 

 ghanistan on the Murghab and in other places, 

 since the frontier question arose. The south- 

 ern portion, watered by the upper Kushk and 

 its tributary streams, is the district of Badghis, 

 formerly occupied by the Char Aimaks of 

 Herat, but depopulated by the Khivan auxil- 

 iaries of the Shah, during the siege of Herat, 

 and since used as a pasture and hunting ground 

 by the Turkomans. The region to the north, 

 traversed by the Turkomans of the Tedjend 

 and Murghab oases in their predatory forays 

 into Persia, has been without a settled popula- 

 tion and known as a " no-man's-land " for two 

 hundred years. The English sought to extend 

 the name Badghis, that by which the north- 

 ernmost district of Herat has been designated, 

 to the whole disputed region. There ie a range 

 of hills crossing the country 36 north of the 

 Borkhut mountains to the Heri Rud at Pul-i- 

 Khatum. This chain is called by Lessar the 

 Elbirin-Kir. The Kushk and its tributaries 

 wind among another congeries of low mount- 

 ains, the outskirts of the Paropamisus. The 

 whole country is abundantly watered by the 

 numerous small tributaries of the Murghab 

 and the Heri Rud. It is generally extremely 

 fertile and nearly everywhere arable. Though 

 now deserted, it once supported a large popu- 

 lation, and contains the ruins of many towns. 

 Poplars, mulberry-trees, willows, and other 

 trees grow thickly along the water-courses, and 

 pistachios stand scatteringly on the hill-sides. 

 Grain will grow well as far as to the north 

 of the Elbirin-Kir. In the east, along the 

 banks of the Kushk and the Murghab, profuse 

 irrigation produces a prolific yield of grain, 

 rice, and many kinds of fruit. In the plains to 

 the west are salt lakes which supply all the 

 neighboring districts with salt. This salt is of 

 excellent quality, and constitutes the chief ex- 

 port of the Turkoman population. The graz- 

 ing-grounds of the Salor Turkomans are along 

 the Heri Rud, those of the Sariks in the valleys 

 of the Murghab and the Kushk. 



The English resisted the Russian claims to 

 the lands of the Salors and Sariks, mainly on 

 strategical grounds. As Herat was a part of 

 Afghanistan, and the part that it was most 

 necessary to preserve from Russia, so whatever 

 positions were essential for the most favorable 

 defense of Herat must be awarded to Afghan- 

 istan. If the Salors and Sariks occupied ter- 

 ritory in which the approaches to Herat were 



