s activity in
the valley of the Oxus necessitated our looking after our interests in
Afghanistan. These considerations rendered it advisable to increase
the army in India by 11,000 British and 12,000 Native troops, bringing
the strength of the former up to nearly 70,000, with 414 guns, and
that of the latter to 128,636.

Russia's movements could not be regarded with indifference, for, while
we had retreated from our dominating position at Kandahar, she had
approached considerably nearer to Afghanistan, and in a direction
infinitely more advantageous than before for a further onward move.
Up to 1881 a Russian army advancing on Afghanistan would have had to
solve the difficult problem of the formidable Hindu Kush barrier, or
if it took the Herat line it must have faced the deserts of Khiva and
Bokhara. But all this was changed by Skobeloff's victories over the
Tekke Turkomans, which gave Merv and Sarakhs to Russia, and enabled
her to transfer her base from Orenburg to the Caspian--by far the most
important step ever made by Russia in her advance towards India. I
had some years before pointed out to the Government of India how
immeasurably Russia would gain, if by the conquest of Merv--a conquest
which I then looked upon as certain to be accomplished in the near
future--she should be able to make this transfer. My words were
unheeded or ridiculed at the time, and I, like others who thought as
I did, was supposed to be suffering from a disease diagnosed by a
distinguished politician as 'Mervousness.' But a little later those
words were verified. Merv had become a Russian possession, and
Turkestan was in direct communication by rail and steamer with St.
Petersburg. And can it be denied that this fact, which would have
enabled the army in the Caucasus to be rapidly transported to the
scene of operations, made it possible for General Komaroff practically
to dictate terms to the Boundary Commission which was sent to define
the northern limits of Afghanistan, and to forcibly eject an Afghan
garrison from Panjdeh under the eyes of British officers?

Lord Dufferin took up the reins of the Government of India at a time
when things had come to such a pass that a personal conference with
the Amir was considered necessary to arrange for the defence and
demarcation of His Highness's frontier, the strengthening of Herat,
the extension of the Sakkur-Sibi railway to Quetta, and the
discussion of the general situation. Abdur Rahman was t