CHAPTER XXYI. 



THE NEAR EAST. 



England and Russia in the East— The point of view from -which Asiatic 

 questions must be regarded— " Without India the British Empire 

 could not exist" — The value of prestige — The commercial and 

 strategic aspects of the Near Eastern and the Far Eastern questions 



Turkey — The long-standing antagonism between Russia and 



Turkey— Enter Germany— A novel solution of the Turkish imbroglio 

 — The Baghdad railway — Persia — Resemblance between the Persian 

 and Turkish problems— Indifference of Great Britain in the past— 

 The financial blunder of 1900— The Russo-Persian railway agreement 

 of 1890— A policy adopted— The Viceroy's visit to the Persian Gulf 

 and the Garter Mission to Teheran- The Koweit incident— Ways and 

 communications — Activity in the field of commerce — The Nushki- 

 Sistan route — The British Government should become shareholders 

 in the Imperial Bank of Persia — The recrudescence of British 

 power. 



When embarking upon the task which lies before me 

 in the concluding chapters of the present volume — in 

 making, that is, an attempt to analyse the situation as 

 it affects Great Britain in Asia — I find myself con- 

 fronted with a dilemma at the very outset. For to 

 give a comprehensive exposition of the problems which 

 await solution at the hands of Great Britain in the 

 East would require far greater space than can here be 

 given to it, while any attempt to deal briefly with a 

 number of questions, each one of which carries in its 

 train a whole host of subsidiary ramifications, must 

 necessarily provide innumerable loopholes for misunder- 

 standing. Nevertheless, since there is no alternative, 



