Considerable clit was thrown on the obscure political situation in the heart of Asia in a lecture by Lieutenant-Colonel P. T. Etherton, Hf. M. Consul-General in Kashgar, and the discussion thereon before the Central Asian Society recently.
Colonel Etherton said that when the Bolshevists came in after the Armistice and launched their cam-sign of "emancipation" for the tribes of Central Asia, it transpired that scarcely any of the tribes wanted to be emancipated by this particular means, and the propaganda fell on stony ground. The fundamental principle of Chinese policy in Turkestan was freedom from foreign domination, and when that was secured, they showed the greatest toleration of differences of opinion.
After close study of the question, he could say he found very little indication of the Mahomedans of Central Asia being influenced by the Pan-Islamic cry, Sympathy vith Turkey was certainly not pronounced, and he was not looked on in any way as the cub of the Islamic world. He did not think that the idea of a Moslem and Buddhist combination was likely to mature, the Buddhists being entirely averse hereto. This view was supported 1 Sir Charles Bell, who returned
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