THE EOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
389 
CEITRAL ASIA, 
AND 
OUR MILITARY POSITION ON THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER OF INDIA. 
A PAPEE BEAD AT 
THE R.A. INSTITUTION, WOOLWICH, 
BY COLONEL JOHN AD YE, C.B. B.A., 
JANUARY 20, 1870. 
The subject which I am desirous of bringing to your notice, is one which 
generally goes by the somewhat wide and rather indefinite name of the 
“ Central Asian ” question. 
It is one regarding which much has lately been written, and yet one 
which is, I believe, not generally well understood. It excites interest 
because its solution affects our future in India, and yet—owing to the 
inaccessibility of some of the regions concerned—the real condition of matters 
can with difficulty be ascertained. In the statements I am about to make, 
I do not pretend to possess any special or exclusive means of knowledge, 
and time only permits me to give a rapid outline; but having studied the 
subject for some time, I am in hopes that what I am about to say may be 
of some slight interest to my brother officers and others now present. 
I propose to divide my subject as follows:— 
Eirst,—To say a few words as to our present military and political 
position on the north-west frontier of India. 
Secondly,'—To give a concise account of the gradual advance of Russia 
southwards, with a sketch of the countries intervening between us. 
Thirdly,—To offer suggestions as to what should be our line of policy 
towards our neighbours. 
Until our arrival in the East, all the great invasions of India for centuries 
past had been made from the north-west; that is, from Central Asia. The 
original Hindoo races of India have been periodically flooded, as it were, 
by successive Mahomedan waves, which penetrated throughout the Penin¬ 
sula. 
When we arrived in India, the Mahomedan power w r as in its decline. 
I have not time, nor indeed is it necessary for me to relate how, 
beginning with small trading factories on the coast, we gradually rolled 
back the tide of Mussulman invasion; how we gradually raised armies, 
composed in great part of the natives of the country; how we advanced, 
and, ever conquering, saw kingdom and principality fall, one after another, 
[vol. vi.] 51 
