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68 68 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA. frontiers of Khokand on the other. It is divided into the following sub-districts : — Sergiopol, Kopal,Yernoe, Issik Kulj Tokmak, and Priilinsk (Knldja). There- fore the Russian frontier from the neighbourhood of Chuguchak to the Aral Sea and the river Oxus is under the same head, the Go vernor- General at Tash- kent. That authority is, it must be remembered, a military authority acting in conjunction with the War Office, and in obedience to, if to anyone at all, the Commander-in-Chief. In fact the official title of his jurisdiction is " The Turkestan Military District." There can be no doubt that whatever disadvantages there may be in regard to the management of internal affairs, and perhaps also as towards Russia's relations with China, in severing Semiretchinsk from Siberia, that change facilitated the adoption of a clearly de- fined and consistent policy towards those Mahomedan states which lay immediately beyond the actual Russian dominions. M. de Giers protested against this transfer in particular, but the military authorities over-ruled his opinion and advice. One effect of this change has certainly been that Russia in Central Asia has not pursued that successful policy of tact and gentle pres- sure towards China which she had always so skilfully followed in Siberia. At Tashkent there is evidently not such an intimate knowledge of Chinese character as there has been shown at Semipalatinsk and Kiachta. The Governor- General of this extensive province, which since its creation has been increased by annex- ations in Bokhara, Khokand, Kuldja, and Khiva, is appointed by the Czar, and within the limits of his