THE IMPORTANT POSITION OF INDIA. 321 



Bussia's ! Whose the serried ranks that a century 

 ago were to have been hurled against the bastions of 

 India, whose the insinuating diplomacy that is even 

 now undermining the glacis of our Indian fort, preparing 

 the ground for the lodgment of a hostile force, and 

 opening out an avenue of approach whereby to render 

 us vulnerable to a flank attack ? — Russia's ! Whose 

 the grey-clad sentinel who through all the clash of 

 conflicting interests stands threateningly on the shores 

 of the Eastern Sea, a menace to British commercial 

 aspirations and to the peace of the nations of the 

 world ? The answer is for ever the same — Russia's ! 

 And so the antagonism and the irreconcilable nature 

 of the ambitions of Great Britain and Russia form one 

 leading factor to be borne in mind when reviewing the 

 problem of Asia ; and there is yet another, the point of 

 view from which Asiatic questions should be regarded. 

 For as India is the pivot of British supremacy in the 

 East, so questions dealing with the East should be 

 looked at largely from an Indian point of view. A half- 

 way house between Great Britain and Australia, New 

 Zealand and the Far East ; a stronghold in the long 

 line of communications that weld together the com- 

 ponent parts of a widely scattered whole; the home 

 and raison d'etre of British power in Asia, — India oc- 

 cupies a unique position among the constituent parts of 

 empire. "It is not intrinsically only," writes Captain 

 Mahan, "that India possesses the value of a base to Great 

 Britain ; the central position which she holds relatively 

 to China and to Egypt obtains also towards Australia 

 and the Cape of Good Hope, assisting thus the concen- 

 tration upon her of such support as either colony can 

 extend to the general policy of an Imperial Federation." 

 The safeguarding of India, then, must ever remain one 

 of the cardinal articles of the belief of British states- 



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