The Brink of War | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 28, 1878

The Brink of War.

ENGLAND, by ordering the advance of her Indian troops upon the Afghan frontier yesterday, practically declared war upon that nation. The Ameer's contemptuous treatment of the formal demands of England for an explanation of recent occurrences is the immediate cause of the movement, although there are numerous others underlying, chief among them the intrigues of Russia. Afghanistan would be a contemptible enemy for Great Britain, but the Ameer is undoubtedly confirmed in the stand he has taken by the conviction that he will receive the active co-operation and support of Russia. In such an event it is easy to see that the war might become one of the greatest struggles of modern times, as the probabilities are strongly in favor of all of the leading European powers taking some part in the conflict, neutrality being almost out of the question.

Our dispatches this morning indicate a sense of uneasiness on the part of the British. Their tenor indicates that the war is not one of England's seeking, but that it is forced upon her by the consciousness that a betrayal of weakness at this juncture might prove fatal to her Eastern aspirations and probably lay the foundation for destroying her supremacy in India.

Russia has long betrayed a disposition to dispute with England the acquisition of Asiatic territory. The two nations have helped themselves liberally in that region, gobbling up every square mile of land that had not a ruler with the ability or strength to take care of it. Their possessions there are now nearly as important as those in Europe, and naturally each one views with distrust every move made by the other which even remotely jeopardizes them. Russia's intrigues with the Ameer have proved sufficient to awaken all of this distrust, and hence the present complication.

One of the conspicuous features of the trouble is the fact that Beaconsfield, who but a few weeks ago was celebrated throughout England as the most remarkable of modern diplomats, is likely to have his laurels torn off. His course in the Berlin Congress was generally imagined to be masterly, and he was conceded to be its leading spirit. John Bull, at its termination, rejoiced wildly over the apparent cowing of Russia by Beaconsfield, but this abjectness is now seen to have been only a surface matter; for while Englishmen were congratulating themselves on their Premier's diplomacy, the Russian diplomats were quietly laying their plans for a campaign in Afghanistan which may possibly end in a war, the result of which may be the wresting from England of the better part of her Asiatic dominions. Even if the result should not prove so serious as this for England, there is the strongest reason to believe that Russia will enlarge her foot-hold in Asia so that her British rival can never successfully contest supremacy with her.

—San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 21.