THE QUETTA-NUSHKI RAILWAY. 341 



"to paralyse our rivals," and the ' Novoe Vremya' 

 did not hesitate to describe the Quetta - Nushki 

 railway as the beginning of a line which would 

 eventually place the British on the flank of what it 

 describes as " the probable path of E/Ussian advance 

 on India." Candour with a vengeance, recalling a 

 comment of Lord Curzon a decade ago : " When 

 the cat is to be let out of the bag, commend me to 

 a Russian newspaper for the uncompromising manner 

 in which it is performed." Once more has the ' Novoe 

 Vremya ' been stirred to remonstrance — this time, 

 seemingly, by the Anglo-Persian Boundary Commission, 

 which still bides amid the physical and climatic de- 

 lights of Sistan. This time — September 1903 — a 

 bitter refrain runs through the plaint : " And yet if 

 Russia allows Great Britain to strengthen its in- 

 fluence in Sistan and South-East Persia, then we are 

 preparing for ourselves a dismal solution of the Central 

 Asian Question." 



All this is of course a little premature. All that 

 has so far been taken in hand is a short line 82|- 

 miles in length from the Quetta plateau to Nushki, 

 which place is itself more than 300 miles from the 

 Persian frontier. At the same time it cannot be too 

 strongly urged that such a line should be continued 

 across Baluchistan. The trade-route as it is can, as 

 I have been at some pains to point out, only be re- 

 garded as a questionable success. The construction of 

 a railway would not only develop and fortify our com- 

 mercial interests and political prestige in South and 

 East Persia, but it would place us in a position to 

 take that part in the future railway development of 

 Persia which will some day inevitably devolve upon 

 us. If I might venture to suggest a strategical 

 advantage attaching to such a consummation, it is 



