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209 RUSSIA AND PERSIA. 209

eastern frontier. It is because tliese facts are so palpable that it is necessary to remember the lesson they teach, which above all is, that when Russia finds the time ripe for revealing her hand in Persia, it will not be by underhand intrigues such as those of Simonitch or Duhamel that she will utilise what she has so long been preparing ; but by declared acts and open hostility will she demonstrate that Persia is her principal base in operations against India, and that Persia, nolens volens, is at her complete disposal. On several occasions, as we have seen, Eussia has been on the point of absorbing northern Persia; but although she has not for long made any ostensible advance, her power was never more assured in those provinces than it is at the present moment, when she has not violated the letter of any of those engagements which were intended to secure the integrity of Persia. This fact being ascertained, it follows that the danger to India from her predominance in Persia could never have been greater than at the present time ; yet there is an apathy and a confidence in the security of our interests in Persia that are extraordinary, and that cannot but be hollow and utterly to be distrusted. 14