§ MR. J. M. MACLEAN (Cardiff)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, as the distance intervening between the present terminus of the Indian railway system in the south of Afghanistan and that of the Russian railway system on the north is only about 700 miles, and Russia is now making a further extension of the Transcaspian line in the direction of Herat, Her Majesty's Government will consider the expediency of opening-negotiations with the Afghan and the Russian Governments for the construction of a line through Candahar and Herat connecting the two systems, with a view to the completion of an overland railway to Calcutta?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. GEORGE CURZON,) Lancashire, SouthportIt would be quite premature at this moment to consider the expediency of entering into negotiations for the construction of a line of railway beyond the frontiers of India to join a line that is either not yet commenced or only in the earliest stages of progress.