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aiding the establishment and development of International Exhibitions, the Department of Science and Art, and the South Kensington Museum."

In 1872, to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Bessemer, F.R.S., for the eminent services rendered by him to Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, in developing the manufacture of steel."

In 1873, to Michel Eugène Chevreul, For. Memb. R.S., Member of the Institute of France, "for his chemical researches, especially in reference to saponification, dyeing, agriculture, and natural history, which for more than half a century have exercised a wide influence on the industrial arts of the world."

In 1874, to Mr. (afterwards Sir) C. W. Siemens, D.C.L., F.R.S., "for his researches in connection with the laws of heat, and the practical applications of them to furnaces used in the Arts; and for his improvements in the manufacture of iron; and generally for the services rendered by him in connection with economisation of fuel in its various applications to Manufactures and the Arts."

In 1875, to Michel Chevalier, "the distinguished French statesman, who, by his writings and persistent exertions, extending over many years, has rendered essential services in promoting Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce."

In 1876, to Sir George B. Airy, K.C.B., F.R.S., Astronomer Royal, "for eminent services rendered to Commerce by his researches in nautical astronomy and in magnetism, and by his improvements in the application of the mariner's compass to the navigation of iron ships."

In 1877, to Jean Baptiste Dumas, For. Memb. R.S., Member of the Institute of France, "the distinguished chemist, whose researches have exercised a very material influence on the advancement of the Industrial Arts."

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In 1878, to Sir Wm. G. Armstrong (afterwards Lord Armstrong), C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., 'because of his distinction as an engineer and as a scientific man, and because by the development of the transmission of power-hydraulically-due to his constant efforts, extending over many years, the manufactures of this country have been greatly aided, and mechanical power beneficially substituted for most laborious and injurious labour.”

In 1879, to Sir William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin), LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., "on account of the signal service rendered to Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, by his electrical researches, especially with reference to the transmission of telegraphic messages over ocean cables."

In 1880, to James Prescott Joule, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., "for having established, after most laborious research, the true relation between heat, electricity, and mechanical work, thus affording to the engineer a sure guide in the application of science to industrial pursuits."

In 1881, to August Wilhelm Hofmann, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Berlin, "for eminent services rendered

to the Industrial Arts by his investigations in organic chemistry, and for his successful labour in promoting the cultivation of chemical education and research in England."

In 1882, to Louis Pasteur, Member of the Institute of France, For. Memb. R.S., "for his researches in connection with fermentation, the preservation of wines, and the propagation of zymotic diseases in silkworms and domestic animals, whereby the arts of wine-making, silk production, and agriculture have been greatly benefited."

In 1883, to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, K.C.S.I., C.B., M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., "for the eminent services which, as a botanist and scientific traveller, and as Director of the National Botanical Department, he has rendered to the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce by promoting an accurate knowledge of the floras and economic vegetable products of our several colonies and dependencies of the Empire."

In 1884, to Captain James Buchanan Eads, "thǝ distinguished American engineer, whose works have been of such great service in improving the water communications of North America, and have thereby rendered valuable aid to the commerce of the world." In 1885, to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Doulton, "in recognition of the impulse given by him to the production of artistic pottery in this country."

In 1886, to Samuel Cunliffe Lister (now Lord Masham), "for the services he has rendered to the textile industries, especially by the substitution of mechanical wool combing for hand combing, and by the introduction and development of a new industry -the utilisation of waste silk."

In 1887, to HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA, “in commemoration of the progress of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce throughout the Empire during the fifty years of her reign."

In 1888, to Professor Hermann Louis Helmholtz, For. Memb. R.S., "in recognition of the value of his researches in various branches of science and of their practical results upon music, painting, and the useful arts."

In 1889, to John Percy, LL.D., F.R.S., " for his achievements in promoting the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, through the world-wide influence which his researches and writings have had upon the progress of the science and practice of metallurgy.” In 1890, to William Henry Perkin, F.R.S., his discovery of the method of obtaining colouring matter from coal tar, a discovery which led to the establishment of a new and important industry, and to the utilisation of large quantities of a previously

worthless material."

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In 1891, to Sir Frederick Abel, Bart., G.C.V.O., K.C.B., D.C.L., D.Sc., F.R.S., "in recognition of the manner in which he has promoted several important classes of the Arts and Manufactures, by the application of Chemical Science, and especially by his researches in the manufacture of iron and of steel; and also in acknowledgment of the great services he has rendered

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to the State in the provision of improved war material, and as Chemist to the War Department."

In 1892, to Thomas Alva Edison, “in recognition of the merits of his numerous and valuable inventions, especially his improvements in telegraphy, in telephony, and in electric lighting, and for his discovery of a means of reproducing vocal sounds by the phonograph."

In 1893, to Sir John Bennet Lawes, Bart., F.R.S., and Sir Henry Gilbert, Ph.D., F.R.S., "for their joint services to scientific agriculture, and notably for the researches which, throughout a period of fifty years, have been carried on by them at the Experimental Farm, Rothamsted."

In 1894, to Sir Joseph (now Lord) Lister, F.R.S., "for the discovery and establishment of the antiseptic method of treating wounds and injuries by which not only has the art of surgery being generally promoted, and human life saved in all parts of the world, but

eight years' Presidency of the Society of Arts, by undertaking the direction of important exhibitions in this country and the executive control of British representation at International Exhibitions abroad and also by many other services to the cause of British Industry."

In 1902, to Professor Alexander Graham Bell, "for his invention of the Telephone."

In 1903, to Sir Charles Augustus Hartley, K.C.M.G., "in recognition of his services, extending over 44 years, as Engineer to the International Commission of the Danube, which have resulted in the opening up of the navigation of that river to ships of all nations, and of his similar services, extending over 20 years, as British Commissioner on the International Technical Commission of the Suez Canal."

extensive industries have been created for the supply Proceedings of the Society.
of materials required for carrying the treatment into
effect."

In 1895, to Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, Bart., F.R.S., "in recognition of the services he has rendered to Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce by his metallurgical researches and the resulting development of the iron and steel industries."

In 1896, to Prof. David Edward Hughes, F.R.S., "in recognition of the services he has rendered to Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, by his numerous inventions in electricity and magnetism, especially the printing telegraph and the microphone."

In 1897, to George James Symons, F.R.S., "for the services he has rendered to the United Kingdom by affording to engineers engaged in the water supply and the sewage of towns a trustworthy basis for their work, by establishing and carrying on during nearly forty years systematic observations (now at over 3,000 stations) of the rainfall of the British Isles, and by recording, tabulating, and graphically indicating the results of these observations in the annual volumes published by himself."

In 1898, to Professor Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, M.D., For. Memb. R.S., "in recognition of his numerous and most valuable applications of Chemistry and Physics to the Arts and to Manufactures."

In 1899, to Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., "for his extensive and laborious researches in chemistry and in physics; researches which have, in many instances, developed into useful practical applications in the Arts and Manufactures."

In 1900, to Henry Wilde, F.R.S., "for the dis. covery and practical demonstration of the indefinite increase of the magnetic and electric forces from quantities indefinitely small, a discovery now used in all dynamo machines; and for its application to the production of the electric search-light, and to the electro-deposition of metals from their solutions."

In 1901, to HIS MAJESTY THE KING, "in recognition of the aid rendered by His Majesty to Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce during thirty

INDIAN SECTION.

Thursday afternoon, February 11, 1904; The Rt. Hon. Sir J. West RidgewaY, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., K.C.I.E., in the chair.

The paper read was

OUR COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH

AFGHANISTAN.

BY COLONEL SIR THOMAS HUNGERFORD HOLDICH, R.E., K.C.M.G., K.C.I.E., C.B. The present time, when our relations both political and commercial with countries which lie beyond the border land of India are more or less under public discussion, is not an inapt opportunity for passing in review the conditions which govern our commercial relations with at least one of them, and that one the nearest, and, in some respects, the most important. Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, and China flank each other in line from West to East beyond our Indian frontier; and behind them all lies Russia; and somehow or other whenever men commence to discuss what might or might not be done to facilitate our commercial relations with any one of those countries by improving our communications or adjusting our boundaries, Russia invariably finds a place in the discussion. And with very good reason. For were it not for Russian activity in the same commercial fields we might be content to let matters drift, satisfied that we have rounded off the corners of the British Empire with quite sufficient precision; that we have gone quite far enough, and that

we are now concerned above all things in avoiding further expansion which may lead to further political complication. This is only the natural result of the processes by which the Empire has been built up, processes of trade expansion unassisted for the most part by conquest; processes which, in their uneventful issues, have not appealed to the imagination or the sympathies of a great body of Englishmen, and which have left the nation divided in opinion as to whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that we should have expanded into Empire at all. But we cannot tell what the alternative might have been. All we see is that we have suffered from that sincerest form of flattery which takes the form of imitation. We are no longer alone in the adoption of commercial methods of expansion. We have powerful rivals in the field; and for most, if not quite all that affects the Asiatic field, that rival is Russia. Russian commercial policy has always appeared to me to run consistently on the same lines. First establish communications; spread out railways into untraversed spaces; capture such trade as there may be to capture, and then, if necessary, support the commercial interests thus created by force of arms; combine the military with the commercial policy, and so expand the Russian borders and increase Russian wealth. It is not a case of trade following the flag with Russia, nor has it been altogether so with us. Far more frequently trade has preceded the flag, which, however, is never slow to follow in the tracks of trade.

These things being so, I need not apologise for introducing the subject of Afghanistan. Our relations with that country now are not entirely satisfactory, although it is said to be quite beyond the pale of practical politics at present to alter them. We have made Afghanistan what it is a very solid buffer between ourselves and our northern neighbour, and it is in every way desirable that it should remain so. Nevertheless I think that a candid and plain statement of our determination eventually to extend and improve our own commercial relations would tend to strengthen our political relations even with Afghanistan, whose rulers for a long time have been watching the rapid progress of advancing railways and expanding commerce on one side their border from Persia to China, wondering after their manner, what fashion of commercial repartee was to be made on the other. I have had the luck (good or bad) to spend some years of my life in Afghanistan,

and to have been in every province of it, and in direct communication with one or two of its leading men. I know a little (not much perhaps, but rather more than most Englishmen) of the temper of the Afghan people, and I də not think that it is impossible to effect the improvement we desire. Can we in any way teach the new Afghan generation respect for our position without risking the peace of the border? If it is to be done at all it is only by convincing the Afghan son of Israel (who is not always either intolerant or thick-headed) that it is to his advantage as much as ours that his trade and communications should be improved, but that under any circumstances we know our own mind on the subject, and possess a policy as definite as that of Russia. Remember that whoever first threatens the integrity of Afghanistan as she is to-day, will stir up a veritable wasps' nest. Twenty-five years have consolidated the Afghan army; armed her troops with modern weapons; given her an abundant artillery; wiped out the wretched old traditions of buying up the enemy in the field, and have introduced something akin to patriotism in the ranks. In short, that quarter of a century has done everything except find leaders for a campaign, and perhaps we are not quite sure even of that defect. We do not want another Afghan war on our hands. Equally certainly may we take it that Russia does not; but it does not appear to me that there is in this fact any reason for allowing a nation which should be entirely at one with our interests, to block the way successfully and for ever to any scheme of civilised progress, such as should improve our eastern trade and bring ourselves and Russia into better accord.

At any rate, the subject opens up many matters of interest with which I propose to deal shortly (and I fear but sketchily) to-day.

In the first place, in reviewing commercial relations with Afghanistan, we may enquire, What is there in the country which we can get out of it, and what is there not which might be added to her present development?

Trade with Afghanistan is represented by very poor figures if we are to trust Indian statistics. There are but three avenues of trade with Afghanistan across the Indian frontier, and about one of them we have very little information. Indeed, there is no system of registration of exports and imports which can be considered sufficiently accurate to give positive results on any of them. It is possible. however, to make a general estimate which

will indicate the progress of trade for better or

worse.

The three chief trade routes connecting India with Afghanistan across the frontier,

are

(1) The northern route, by the Khaibar Pass to Kabul, from Peshawar.

(2) The southern route, by the Bolan, or Sind-Pishin Railway, to Quetta and

Kandahar.

(3) The central route, by the Gomul Pass to Ghazni and Central Afghanistan. From Kabul we receive a considerable amount of fruit and vegetables (together forming the largest item in the Indian import list), grain and pulse, ghi and other provisions, asafoetida and other drugs; wool, spices, silk, and tobacco, as well as horses and cattle. The above appear to be recognised items in the import list; but besides the above, there are to be found in the bazaar at Peshawar, carpets and postins (the latter consisting of prepared sheepskins made into coats, and often highly ornamented with silk) which are very much in demand on the frontier in winter. Silks and embroideries from Bokhara are also obtainable at Peshawar in small quantities; but the heavy transit duties charged by the Amir almost annihilate trade between India and countries north of the Oxus; Bokhara trade now finds its way chiefly to Russian markets. We send to Kabul, in return, cotton goods (chiefly) with indigo, sugar, and tea (the latter mostly China leaf); and we could, no doubt, largely increase the tea trade passing through Kabul to Central Africa but for the transit duties, which are said to amount to 106 cupees per camel load of tea-say 4d. per pound. To Kandahar we send cotton-piece goods-European and Indian-which constitute three-fourths of the whole list of exports along the southern trade route between Quetta and Kandahar; and we receive fruit and raw wool in about equal quantities together with a few carpets and rugs. The Sind-Pishin Railway beyond Quetta terminates at New Chaman, which is a flourishing little frontier town beyond the Kojak range and about 70 miles from Kandahar. This would, under the ordinary circumstances, be the natural trade depôt where the khafila traffic from Afghanistan should be shifted to the railway. But the late Amir never recovered from his annoyance at the completion of the Kojak tunnel, and the construction of the railway for some seven miles beyond it down the farther slopes of the mountains. He

regarded it as a violation of the Treaty of Gandamak, which fixed the frontier boundary at the northern foot of the range, and as a direct menace to Kandahar. He consequently maintained an attitude of hostility to the line itself, ignoring its existence beyond that point where it touches the southern slopes of the range at Kila Abdulla; and to this day I believe that long strings of Afghan camels are to be seen patiently toiling with their burden of wool, hides, and fruit over the Kojak Pass, moving slowly and majestically alongside the railway line, which should relieve them from the trouble of negotiating the only really difficult pass between Kandahar and Quetta. The estimated value of the trade thus maintained is about £200,000 exports to Kabul, and £170,000 imports. With Kandahar it may be rather greater; but if we make the totals £500,000 in value of exports to Afghanistan and £400,000 imports to India, we shall I think have a fair estimate of the value of trade in 1900, so far as it can be ascertained from authentic sources as maintained along the two principal trade routes.

In 1891-92 these totals were considerably larger, nearly £900,000 exports and £546,000 imports. But there was a great falling off between 1891-92 and 1897-98. In the latter year the exports were reduced to £355,000 in value, and the imports to £362,000. To what circumstances we should attribute this remarkable depression in the export figures I cannot say. It could not have been due to any increase of import duties, or to slackness of demand in Afghanistan, which was then at peace, and under a firm and secure system of administration. More probably it was due to competition from the north, and the increase of Russian goods in the markets of the country which followed the completion of the railway to Kushk. It is, at any rate, satisfactory to observe a certain tendency to recovery in the statistics for 1900, although they are very far from being altogether satisfactory, and do not compare well with the figures of ten years ago.

It will be observed that we are only dealing with the trade passing through two avenues of approach to the principal markets of Afghanistan, and that there are others intermediate which may add to the account. But the only intermediate trade route between India and Central Afghanistan of any consequence besides that of the Khaibar and the SindPishin Railway, is that of the Gomul river connecting Ghazni with the frontier town of Dera Ismail Khan. Down this route every

year, there swarm a multitude of Ghilzai povindahs (or so-called merchants) bringing their wives and families with them, to spend the winter months in a congenial lowland climate, whilst they lead their strings of camels afar through the plains of India, bent on a nomadic form of traffic with the country, which takes little reckoning of central marts or mercantile depôts. Fruit is the chief article of trade; but they bring lungiswoven and embroidered in Afghanistan-with the camel's hair material known as karak or barak, and occasionally they have something to show of the products of Bokhara in their bales; but it is very little now of the silks and embroideries of Bokhara that finds its way across the Oxus or over the northern hills which separate the plans of Afghan-Turkestan from those of Ghazni. I can find no statistics of this povindah trade, but it is probably inconsiderable and not to be compared with that of the routes already mentioned. It may, perhaps, raise the value of Afghan trade to a total half a million each way-an amount which is easy to remember, and probably not far from the truth. This is about one-sixth of the nominal value of our trade with Persia; but Persia possesses a population more than double that of Afghanistan (say nine millions to four millions), and an area which is as 628,000 to 215,000 square miles, or nearly three times as great; and Persia possesses, moreover, sources of commercial wealth in her carpet making, pearl fishing, and turquoise mining industries which Afghanistan cannot hope to rival.

I do not think that trade with Afghanistan, even were its present value to be doubled or quadrupled by the removal of the heavy imposts placed upon it by the Amir, or by the development of internal resources, could ever rise to magnificent proportions. Let us consider Afghanistan somewhat in detail, and reckon up commercial possibilities by the light of what we know of Afghan geography. Afghanistan is a long, oval-shaped country, stretching through 700 miles of length from S.W. to N.E., with a general breadth of about 350 miles, narrowing to a point on the northeast, where an arm is extended outwards to the Pamirs. Right across it, from west to east (but curving upwards to touch this extended arm at its eastern extremity) is a band of mountains which separates the basin of the Oxus on the north from that of the Indus and the Helmund on the south; but which still leaves space for a river (the Hari Rud, or River of Herat) to form a basin of its own on the

north-west. This band of mountain formation is the most important physical feature in Afghanistan. On the extreme west (the frontier of Afghanistan) it allows of the passage of the Hari Rud through to the desert of Russian Turkestan. Eastward of this, the mountains are for many miles but the washed down and degraded relic of a far more imposing range which has gradually silted its muddy soil downward from the crest and spread it into broad fans at its foot, until there is little of the obstruction of rugged declivities to bar the way across them. There are glens with rounded slopes, leading upwards from the extreme west of the Herat plain, which admit of wheeled vehicles being driven to the crest; and even where, above the sources of the Murghab river, the Band-i-Turkestan rises into significance and presents the appearance of an imposing range of mountains, there are few of its spurs which will prove inaccessible to the Turkoman horsemen. To the northward this central watershed (for it represents the great orographic backbone of Asia) has been washed down into an amazing sea of roundheaded sand waves, stretching away towards the Oxus flats and called the Chol-a waving sea of grass and flowers in summer, a blank wild wilderness of marmot infested desert in winter. Through the loess formations of the Chol the drainage from the mountains has cut its way in deep channels to the Oxus plains, but it never reaches the Oxus river. It is absorbed in vast central depressions or swamps (the home of the pheasant and the wild boar) which are cut off from communication with the Oxus by a flexure in the level of the plain parallel with the Oxus, which appears to be in progress of formation at the present time. As, however, the central water divide, or mountain band, trends eastwards, it gradually increases in altitude and in breadth, rising to the dignity of snow-capped peaks and presenting most difficult passages through gorges of stupendous depth or over snow and ice-bound passes, until it merges into the S.W. extremity of the Hindu Kush. Over the backbone of the Hindu Kush, which, after dividing Badakshan from the Kabul river basin, traverses Kaffiristan and finally becomes the northern boundary of Afghanistan to the Pamirs, are passes at intervals; but they are all formidable -all effectual barriers (in spite of the late Amir's road-making) to steady traffic between the Oxus basin and Kabul. Between the Oxus basin terminating in the Caspian, and the chief markets of Afghanistan (Kabul,

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