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.  We, on the other hand, should be received with open arms, as rescuers of the Indian people from their intolerable yoke.  The Anglo-Indian army looks on paper much more formidable than it really is; its strength is put at 200,000 men, yet only one-third of this number are English soldiers, the rest being composed of natives.  This army, moreover, consists of four divisions, which are scattered over the whole great territory of India.  A field army, for employment on the frontier or across it, cannot possibly consist of more than 60,000 men; for, considering the untrustworthiness of the population, the land cannot be denuded of its garrisons.  As a result of what I have said, I record my conviction that the war will have to be waged in India itself, and that God will give us the victory.”

The words of the General, spoken in an energetic and confident tone, made a deep impression upon his hearers; only respect for the presence of the Grand Dukes prevented applause.  The greyhaired President gave the Minister of War his hand, and invited the Minister for Foreign Affairs to address them.

“In my opinion,” said the diplomatist, “there is no doubt that the strategical opinions just delivered by His Excellency the Minister for War are based upon an expert’s sound and correct estimate of the circumstances, and I also am certain that the troops of His Majesty the Tsar, accustomed as they are to victory, will, in the event of war, soon be standing upon the plain of the Indus.  It is also my firm conviction that Russia would be best advised to take the offensive as soon as ever the impossibility of our present relations to England