far as Nushki only is
practically useless. It is only a distance of some ninety odd miles,
through good country with plenty of water and some grazing.

In England one reads in the papers and hears people talk of this railway
as the Quetta-Sistan Railway, and people seem to be under the impression
that Nushki is on the Persian border. It should be clearly understood
that from Nushki to Sistan (Sher-i-Nasrya) the distance, through
practically desert country and scanty water, is over 500 miles. To my
mind it is in the Robat-Nushki portion of that distance, where travelling
is difficult, and for troops almost impossible, that a railway is mostly
needed. I have gone to much trouble, and risked boring the reader, to
give all the differential altitudes upon the portion of the road between
Robat and Nushki, and it will be seen that hardly anywhere does the track
rise suddenly to more than 50 or 100 feet at most. The ground could
easily be made solid enough to lay a line upon; tanks for the water
supply might be established at various stations, and a railway could be
built with no trouble and comparatively small expense.

Again, for the trade of Southern Persia, Robat would, I think, be a
fairly good terminus on the Perso-Beluch frontier; but, in order to
compete with Russia in Sistan and Khorassan, it would be a very good
thing if the Government could enter into an arrangement with Afghanistan,
so that if such a railway were built it should strike from Dalbandin
across the desert up to the Southern bank of the Halmund, and have
Sher-i-Nasrya in Sistan for its terminus. This would do away almost
altogether--except in a small section--with the difficulty of the water,
and would shorten the distance by at least one quarter.

The idea one often hears that it would be dangerous to construct such a
railway, because it would be to open a passage for Russia into India, is
too ridiculous to be argued about. It might be pointed out that the
Russians on their side seem not to reciprocate the fear of our invading
their country, for they are pushing their railways from the north as far
as they can towards the Persian frontier, and it is stated that a
concession has been obtained by them for a railway line to Meshed.

But, either _via_ Robat or the Halmund, the principal point is that if we
do not wish to lose Southern Persia we must push the railway with the
utmost speed, at least as far as the frontier. Anything, in such a case,
is bett