p. 272 | THE EASTERN OUTLOOK

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, April 28, 1885

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 62, No. 17

THE EASTERN OUTLOOK.

In an article headed, “Will England Defend India?” the Independent of April 23 says:—

“If M. de Giers has any sense of humor he must be amused at the energy displayed by Mr. Gladstone, not in calling Russia to account for a gross and palpable violation of the conditions of peace, but in trying to find out whether the hand that dealt the blow at Penjdeh was a left or a right hand, a closed or an open hand. His curiosity will probably be satisfied shortly with a coup de main; for it is plain to everybody but the British Premier that Russia means to have Herat.”

Once in possession of Herat, Russia holds the key to the overland route from Europe to India; and the question for England to decide is simply whether she will check and hold the Russian power where it is, with the aid of the friendly alliance of the semi-civilized Afghans, or fight her under vastly more disadvantageous circumstances on the very border of her Indian empire. Russia is sacredly cherishing an inflexible purpose to reach India through Asia, as well as to gain possession of Constantinople; and the autocrat of eighty millions of people, possessing a vast though compact empire within striking distance of both points, is not easily to be restrained from his purpose. There are in the impending conflict all the necessary elements for the last great predicted political revolution in which the nations shall be dashed to pieces in the battle of the great day.