August 3, 191 1] 



NATURE 



i39 



render, to take instances, would at once recognise in 

 "Coccienco" the Russian name Kochienko, in " I-'r 

 O-scen " the Chinese Yi-erh Wo-shen, in " Cucia " or 

 "Cuccia" the town of Kucha, or even in " Culgia " 

 that of Kuldja? And ought the town of Piotr-Alex- 

 Indrovsk to be literally translated into Italian as 

 I Pietro-Alessandro " ? In England we do not talk of 

 PCoachienco," "Yee-erh, " "Cootcha." or "Peter- 

 Alexander " (though we might have sixty years ago), 

 and nowadays the strictly scientific "Kocyenko," 

 "Kuldza," or "Kuca," would be perfectly well under- 

 stood here. In this matter of transliteration the 

 Italians (like the French in dealing with Arabic 

 nines) are half a century behind the times. This 

 book will be read, out of Italy, only by those who have 

 some knowledge of Central Asia and its languages, 

 but do not necessarily know even enough Italian to 

 recognise the name of the author of this book in its 

 Italian form, " Xisci Tocugiro." 



Mr. Nishi's work was a very complete description 

 of the lands and peoples of Central Asia, so far as 

 counting of heads goes, but not a particularly thorough 

 ione. Its historical sections are the best, but its great 

 Biteresl lies simply in the fact that it was the work 

 of a Japanese so early as the eighteenth year of Meiji. 

 Even then the relentless advance of Russia in Asia 

 was being noted by the watching Japanese, and the 

 resources and possibilities of her Asiatic dominion 

 were being " sized up " by the unimportant traveller 

 Nishi, who was significantly, on his return to Japan, 

 attached to the general staff. Who knows but even 

 then the Japanese were beginning to prepare for the 

 inevitable struggle, which came twenty years later, 

 just when the dominion of all Asia seemed about to 

 fall irrevocably into Russian hands? Mr. Nishi had 

 no great belief when he wrote in the ability of China 

 or even England to stop Russia. He seems to shrug 

 his shoulders over the vain English protests against 

 the advance of the colossus of the north, which 

 emanated in " Mervous " succession from our Foreign 

 Office tor twenty years, and ended with the "Penjdeh 

 incident " (Signor Nocentini calls the place " Pange "), 

 which seemed to make our weakness patent to all the 

 world. The ally of 1002 did not seem verv admirable 

 to a Japanese in 1885, We have, however, got over 

 our " mervousness " now that Russia is brought up 

 short by the great mountain-barriers, and indeed it is 

 not probable that we ever had any real justification 

 in trying to stop her advance into Turkestan. Her 

 taking of Men.- was much more inevitable than our 

 taking of Mandalay, and she only went bevond bounds 

 when she took Penjdeh and the Kushk vallev from 

 Afghanistan. The real danger of war which then 

 ensued was a signal to her to stop, for we know 

 now, since Japan has shown us, that Russia's power 

 is all "bluff"; she had no more wish for war with us 

 in 1885 than with China over the question of Kuldja 

 in 1880, or with Japan in 1903. In 1880 China met 

 her bluff with greater bluff, and in 1903 Japan took 

 her at her word, with the result that the historv of 

 Asia has entered on a new phase, incredible had it 

 been, prophesied in 1885, even to the self-confident 

 countrymen of Mr. Nishi. 



Signor Nocentini brings the political part of the 

 NO. 2 179, VOL. 87] 



book fully up to date, even including an account of 

 Dr. Stein's discoveries and the text of the Anglo- 

 Russian agreement relative to Tibet. We see from 

 this that the prohibition of the sending of scientific 

 expeditions to Tibet by either Russia or England ex- 

 pired in 19 10. But in view of the disturbed condition 

 of Tibet owing to the Chinese invasion, it is not prob- 

 able that any such expeditions will be sent there for 

 some time yet. 



The tvpographical and ethnological details have 

 not been brought up to date. The mountains stand 

 where they stood in 1885, and the Jaxartes has not yet 

 again changed its course, while the ethnic peculiari- 

 ties of Kirghiz, Uzbegs, Sarts, Eleuths, and Dungans 

 remain the same, so this does not matter. But details 

 of the population of the cities and of the dislocation 

 of Russian troops in Asia in 1S81 have now merely 

 an antiquarian interest. 



Nevertheless the book is a very interesting one, and 

 is well worth persual by" those who study the subject. 

 What the future of this huge land will be, who can 

 say? The Japanese war has probably put a stop to 

 all Russian advance for many a year to come, unless a 

 parliamentary China should foolishly (thinking her- 

 self, in Babu-wise, the equal of Japan) try to oust 

 Russia from northern Manchuria. In that case China 

 will lose much, while Japan will look benevolently, 

 this time, upon Russia's chastisement of her. Then 

 we English would be well advised to insist that Russia, 

 whatever else she may take, shall leave Chinese Turke- 

 stan in Chinese hands. Otherwise a fresh attack of 

 "mervousness" may arise, if Russia is in Kashgar 

 and Khotan. 



If there is no war between Russia and China within 

 the next few years, the- Russians will be able to 

 devote their rather intermittent energies to the de- 

 velopment of the enormous territory that is already 

 theirs. Railways are a necessity to her military hold 

 of Central Asia, and there are lines yet to be built 

 which are of great strategic importance, though they 

 may not "pay " for a century. A railway from Oren- 

 burg through Akmolinsk to Semipalatinsk is pro- 

 jected, and another line should run from 

 Tashkend to Krasnoyarsk, by way of Aulie-ata, 

 Yyernvi (where the recent earthquake took place), 

 Sergiopol, Semipalatinsk, and Barnaul, with a branch 

 to the Hi valley, and, if China will permit, on to 

 Kuldja. This line would bind Turkestan to eastern 

 Siberia, and enable troops to be railed from Samar- 

 kand to Irkutsk direct. But the country to be 

 traversed is mostly steppe, and the immediate value of 

 the line would only be military, as in the case of the 

 existing Orenburg-Tashkend railway. So Russia will 

 be condemned indefinitely to pour out millions of 

 roubles into the wilderness (and the contractors' 

 pockets), and onlv a century hence will the slow work 

 of the present day bear fruit in a great and mighty 

 countrv, the home of millions of peaceful and hard- 

 working Russians — a new Canada. 



The future of China, who can prophesy? But it 

 is improbable that a century hence China will have 

 allowed the Japanese to retain their control of southern 

 Manchuria, or even Korea, and the islanders may be 

 driven back to their home, even as we were expelled 



