Yet, step by step, England endeavours to hamper our activity.  British gold and British intrigues have succeeded in making Afghanistan adopt a hostile attitude towards us.  We must at last ask ourselves this question:  How long do we intend to look on quietly at these undertakings?  Russia must push her way down to the sea.  Millions of strong arms till the soil of our country.  We have at our own command inexhaustible treasures of corn, wood, and all products of agriculture; yet we are unable to reach the markets of the world with even an insignificant fraction of these fruits of the earth that Providence has bestowed, because we are hemmed in, and hampered on every side, so long as our way to the sea is blocked.  Our mid-Asiatic possessions are suffocated from want of sea air.  England knows this but too well, and therefore she devotes all her energies towards cutting us off from the sea.  With an insolence, for which there is no justification, she declares the Persian Gulf to be her own domain, and would like to claim the whole of the Indian Ocean, as she already claims India itself, as her own exclusive property.  This aggression must at last be met with a firm ‘Hands off,’ unless our dear country is to run the risk of suffering incalculable damage.  It is not we who seek war; war is being forced upon us.  As to the means at our disposal for waging it, supposing England will not spontaneously agree to our just demands, His Excellency the Minister of War will be best able to give us particulars.”

He bowed once more to the Grand Dukes and resumed his seat.  The tall, stately figure of the War Minister, Kuropatkin, next rose, at a sign from the President, and said—­

“For twenty years I served in Central Asia and I am able to judge, from my own experience, of our position on the south frontier.  In case of a war with England, Afghanistan is the battle-ground of primary 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