1-150-170 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

Poor Buffer, 1878. The Ameer of Afghanistan, holding a tiny shield and raised sword, straddles the buffers of a Russian steam train. Russia was important to the British Empire because she bordered Afghanistan. The Russian train is heading towards Turkey which, being independent, had been seen as a 'buffer state' between Russia and British interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. However, as Turkish power waned and Russian ambition grew, Turkey was increasingly a 'Poor Buffer', with Russian encroachment giving the Ameer of Afghanistan a route through previously secure areas. The lines below are: 'Danger signals up. Prospect of Collision at the Afghan Junction'. At the bottom are some lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet. From Punch, or the London Charivari, October 19, 1878.