By a coincidence of singular interest in Central Asian affairs the completion of the Orenburg-Tashkent railway occurred simultaneously with the evacuation of Lhassa by the troops of the Tibetan Mission, the two events measuring in a manner the character of the policies pursued by the respective Governments of Great Britain and Russia in Mid-Asia. Moreover, if consideration be given to them and the relation of each to contemporary affairs appreciated, it becomes no longer possible to question the causes which have determined the superior position now held in Asia by our great opponent. If this situation were the result of some sudden cataclysm of nature by which Russia had been violently projected from her territories in Europe across the lone wastes of the Kirghiz steppe into and beyond the region of the Pamirs or over the desert sands of the Kara Kum to the southern valleys of the Murghab river, our periodic lament at the mastery of Central Asia by Russia would be more comprehensible. But, unfortunately, the forward advance of Russia to the borders of Persia, along the frontiers of Afghanistan to the north-eastern slopes of the Hindu Kush, has been gradual; so gradual indeed that as each successive step became accomplished we have had time to register recognition of the fact in bursts of indignant chatter, accompanied as is not unusual with us by a frothy clamour of empty threats. Unluckily noisy outcry has been mistaken for action; but from the moment when Russia first moved into Trans-Caspian territory there appears to have been nothing but vague realisation of the acute possibilities with which the situation in Central Asia from that hour became impressed. As time passed and the several phases vanished our indifference and supineness have increased, until no chapter in the history of our Imperial affairs offers more melancholy reading than that which deals with the period covering the “peaceful” penetration of Asia by Russia.