mary
importance. Three strategic passes lead from Afghanistan into India: the
Khyber Pass, the Bolan Pass, and the Kuram Valley. When, in 1878, the
English marched into Afghanistan they proceeded in three columns from
Peshawar, Kohat, and Quetta to Cabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar respectively.
These three roads have also been laid down as our lines of march. Public
opinion considers them the only possible routes. It would carry me too
far into detail were I to propound in this place my views as to the
'pros and cons' of this accepted view. In short, we SHALL find our way
into India. Hahibullah Khan would join us with his army, 60,000 strong,
as soon as we enter his territory. Of course, he is an ally of doubtful
integrity, for he would probably quite as readily join the English, were
they to anticipate us and make their appearance in his country with a
sufficiently imposing force. But nothing prevents our being first. Our
railway goes as far as Merv, seventy-five miles from Herat, and from
this central station to the Afghan frontier. With our trans-Caspian
railway we can bring the Caucasian army corps and the troops of
Turkestan to the Afghan frontier. I would undertake, within four weeks
of the outbreak of war, to mass a sufficient field army in Afghanistan
round Herat. Our first army can then be followed by a ceaseless stream
of regiments and batteries. The reserves of the Russian army are
inexhaustible, and we could place, if needs be, four million soldiers
and more than half a million of horses in the field. However, I am more
than doubtful whether England would meet us in Afghanistan. The English
generals would not, in any case, be well advised to leave India. Were
they defeated in Afghanistan only small fragments of their army at most
would escape back to India. The Afghans would show no mercy to a
fleeing English army and would destroy it, as has happened on a previous
occasion. If, on the other hand, which God forbid! the fortune of war
should turn against us, we should always find a line of retreat to
Turkestan open and be able to renew the attack at pleasure. If the
English army is defeated, then India is lost to Great Britain; for the
English are, in India, in the enemy's country; as a defeated people they
will find no support in the Indian people. They would be attacked on all
sides by the Indian native chieftains, whose independence they have so
brutally destroyed, at the very moment that their power is broken. W