§ SIR HENRY TYLERasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the Robat Pass, the only pass through the mountains north of Herat available for a railway, is now in Russian or in Afghan possession; and, whether it is within the territory claimed by Russia, but shown in Russian maps to belong to Afghanistan?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEThe Russians have not occupied the 872 Robat Pass. I have no reason to believe that it is the only pass through the mountains north of Herat available for a railway. The House will agree with me that it is not desirable, in the present state of the negotiations, to give information as to the claims of Russia.
§ MR. GOURLEY (for Mr. STOREY)asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether he has noticed the following extract quoted in The Times of Tuesday from The North German Gazette—
We have before us a map prepared by the Secretary of State for India, and described as compiled principally from original authorities, in which the boundary of Merv and Herat is drawn about 25 English miles south of the confluence of the Khushk with the Murghab, and 19 miles south of that very Penjdeh, lying on the left bank of the Murghab, and still about 94 miles north of Herat;and, whether the India Office is cognizant of, or responsible for, any such map?
§ MR. J. K. CROSSThe map referred to by The North German Gazette is apparently one of Persia prepared at the India Office in 1875 by Major St. John. This map possesses no authority whatever as to any portion of country lying outside the Persian Frontier; but in this map there is a point upon the Khushk River, 25 miles south of the confluence of that river with the Murghab, marked as the boundary between Merv and Herat. All the maps of Turkestan prepared between 1872 and 1883 under the authority of the Government of India show the boundary between Merv and Herat to the north of Penjdeh.