Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/14

 PREFACE.

lesson to be derived from history and the record of travellers to the burning political questions of the age. If the reader derives from the perusal of these pages a clearer insight into the causes of the conflict between English and Russian interests in Central Asia, and also rises with the conviction that the policy of Russia is such that it is worth a bold effort to paralyse its effects, the author will have been more than repaid for the three months' labour of writing them. The Central Asian Question should not be the monopoly of a few specialists, or even of the Anglo-Indian world. It is a matter of vital consequence — daily increasing — to every Englishman, and as such it should be studied and gravely considered.