Macartney Catherine (2 results)

Libro vintage. Argomento: Narrativa. Autore: Macartney Catherine. Editore: Giano. Luogo: Vicenza. Anno: 2004. Formato: in-16°. Pagg: 235. Legatura: Brossura con bandelle. Collana: Filorosso. Conservazione: Ottima. Traduzione di Silvia Servi, prima edizione. Ottimo stato di conservazione.

Hardcover. Condition: Fair. First Edition. 1st ed. 236 pp., frontispiece, 3 plates, map. Bound in publisher's green cloth. Hardcover. Poor binding, spine hinge reglued, frayed at edge. Library stamps and markings. "In 1898 Cather Borland married George Macartney and, as a bride of 21, journeyed with him to one of the least accessible places on earth - Kashgar in Turkestan, on the remote borders of India, Russia and China.George Macartney represented Britain at Kashgar from 1890 to 1918. Officially he was responsible for looking after the interests of the small British Indian community there, but unofficially he kept a watch on the activities of the Russians. For at that time Kashgar was Britain's most advancedposition in the Great Game, the long and shadowy struggle with the Tsarist Russia for political and economic supremacy in Asia.Lady Macartney spent seventeen years in Kashgar and extended her hospitality to many famous travellers, among them Sir Aurel Stein, Albert von Le Coq and Dr G.E.Morrison" 'Col Francis Younghusband was the first British Resident in Kashgar, and from 1891 George Macartney (no relation to the first Ambassador to China in 1793) replaced Younghusband and stayed there until his retirement at the end of the First World War. One of the most important duties of the British Political Resident at Kashgar was to send periodic news reports or fortnightly diaries, channelled through the Government of India, to London. The contents of these reports and diaries range from the Resident's daily dealings with the locals to political uprisings in the region. In the countries surrounding India's frontiers, there was little secret intelligence of a direct military kind to be acquired. What the British Government needed to know was mainly political - Russian movement in the region, local events, which tribes might be plotting to overthrow some ruler and what might be the effect on the border tribes. The Political Resident at Kashgar, George Macartney, who was fully bilingual, managed to establish an amicable rapport with Chinese Taotai (a provincial administrator) as well as with the Russian Consul at Kashgar. Through his local contacts, he was well informed of political shifts and likely repercussions within or beyond the borders. In general, it could be said that, like every British Political Agent of that period, Macartney ran a local information or intelligence service, which Russians might have called a spy network, but it tended to be a very informal and parochial affair' (British Library, Chinese Turkestan: British presence).