The Rival Powers in Central Asia. Translated from the German
of Josef Popowski by Arthur Baring Brabant, and edited by Charles E. D. Black. (Archibald Constable and Co.)—The author reviews the present situation, as regards Russia and England, in Asia, and the causes which have brought it about, and he specu- lates on the future. We must act on the defensive, he thinks ; and this action does not promise success. We should not be able to put more than fifty-six thousand on the North-West frontier, with a reserve of thirteen thousand five hundred. And then the fidelity of India, M. Popowski thinks, is doubtful. But it does not follow that, because India would make an effort for indepen- dence, it would welcome Russia. That would, indeed, be out of the frying-pan into the fire. What then does our author propose ? That England should join the Central European coalition, and that, as an active measure, she should attack Russia at the point of the Caucasus,—wrest the Caucasus from Russia, and this might, he thinks, be done by coalition with Turkey,—and the base for an advance on India is gone. But imagine the face of the average Radical when it is proposed that England should find fifty thousand men to conquer the Caucasus !
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