ACROSS A CONTINENT. 



set our faces to the future. What has to be faced by 

 the present generation is the fact that Russia is there ; 

 what has to be reahsed is that "the poUcy of masterly 

 inactivity, admirably well adapted to the circumstances 

 of an Asiatic kingdom standing alone, remote from 

 Russia, and far apparently beyond the zone of Russian 

 ambition, becomes inarticulate folly when applied to 

 an Asiatic kingdom contiguous to and leaning on 

 Russia." 1 The all-important question which sooner or 

 later must be answered is, How long can Turkey, Persia, 

 Afghanistan, Tibet, and, if we take the broadest view 

 of the whole question, China, maintain even the 

 precarious title to independence to which they can at 

 the present time lay claim ? 



The rapidly increasing importance of the problem of 

 Asia to the British people was painted in vivid colours 

 by the present Viceroy of India in the course of a 

 speech delivered at Calcutta on March 25, 1903. 

 "Europe," he pointed out, "has woke up, and is 

 beginning to take a revived interest in Asia. Russia, 

 with her vast territories, her great ambitions, and her 

 unarrested advance, has been the pioneer of this 

 movement, and with her, or after her, have come her 

 competitors, rivals, and allies. Thus, as all these 

 foreigners arrive upon the scene, and push forward into 

 the vacant spots, we are slowly having a European 

 situation created in Asia with the same figures upon 

 the stage. ... In Europe we are a maritime Power, 

 who are merely called upon to defend our own shores 

 from invasion, and who are confronted by no land 

 dangers or foes. In Asia we have both a seaboard 

 and a land frontier many thousands of miles in length, 

 and though Providence has presented us on some 



1 Malleson's ' History of Afghanistan.' I have substituted the words " an 

 Asiatic kingdom " for the " Afghanistan " of the original. 



