Shaw returned by the Karakoram Pass to India. The verdict was that the expedition took daring and adventurous spirit but the intelligence results were critical in the closing decades of the Great Game. Securing new friendships on the Silk Road at a critical stage helped keep the Silk Road open to East to West traders. Furthermore Shaw was recognised officially, being in service of the British Empire helping to set the seal on a new understanding with Russia that would be concluded by his nephew, Francis Younghusband. On the obverse Yakub Beg was targeted by the Russians for assassination, closing the Silk Road that Shaw had hoped to trade tea caravans. Shaw concurred with the theoretical land hunger of the Tsar for territorial expansion into Kashgaria; to invade India, the Russians would enter Chang Lung Pass, surmount past Leh to the Ladakh and down into the plains.