The following ideas would still further separate the two Powers:—
(1) The extension of the railway from Samarcand to Kokan, because from Kokan Russia can threaten to push on her border to Eastern Turkestan, and move southward to Tibet, and from there will be able to threaten the territory of Cashmere, which are the boundaries at present unsettled.
(2) An extension of railway from Samarcand to Tashkend, which is contemplated, and when completed will connect Siberia from a military point of view. It can be also taken north-west, along the north-eastern shore of the Aral Sea, and may be connected with the parent line at Orenburg, and connected with Russia and Central Asia for military purposes.
(3) To construct a line from Mertvi, or Dead Bay, on the Caspian, to the western shore of the Sea of Aral. This would prove another quick mode of transit, particularly from St. Petersburg and Moscow to Kilif, on the Oxus, and also to Samarcand. At present steamers ply on the Amu Daria from the Aral Sea southwards as far as Kilif on the northern boundary of Afghanistan.
These steamers are 20 feet broad, 150 feet long, and are of 500–horse power, travelling 16 miles an hour, and are capable of conveying 300 soldiers and 20 officers.
(4) To throw off a branch line from Bokhara to Kilif, and from there to Balkh.
(5) Two branch lines (a) from Merv to Herat, viâ Penjdeh; (b) from Merv to Sarakhs, viâ Chacha, and still further to Kuhsan, in the direction of Herat.
(6) By entering the Persian dominion from the present northern boundary to occupy Meshed, proceeding thence to Kuhsan to meet the line from Sarakhs.
In consequence of the approaching departure for Persia of M. de Buelzoff, the newly-appointed minister at Teheran, most of the Russian newspapers warmly advocated the immediate construction of a line from the northern part of Persia.
(7) An extension of railway from Meshed through Khorasan and Serstan southwards as far as Nasirabad, and eventually to get a port on the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean.