Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎80v] (164/312)

acknowledge that within a~1ew weeks of their peace-with-honour
triumphs they were actually pitted against the hostile machina
tions of a Power whose ability to disturb the empire they ridiculed
' while they were helping her with means to do it ? Their cue
I (it appeared to us) was not to acknowledge that they had anything
more than a mere frontier disturbance to meet; and to remain
quiet in their various places of retirement by way of keeping up
appearances.
These anticipations were verified by the event. The Cabinet
was not called together, doubtless for the very natural reasons
assigned. But the omission was much remarked upon, and it really
. is necessary to do something; and so, after the lapse of a
fortnight, the Cabinet is to assemble. It is announced that a
Council will be held on Saturday. Moreover, the journal selected
as the channel of this announcement is instructed to add that at
this Council Ministers " will in all probability discuss the further
development of frontier affairs in India; the situation, as it now
presents itself, having neither been unexpected nor unprovided
for." Nobody but an anxious official could have penned this com
munication ; because nobody but an anxious official could have
ventured on the statement with which it concludes. " The situa
tion, as it now presents itself, having neither been unexpected
nor unprovided for." But if the situation as it now presents
itself was expected, then when the Government allowed
themselves to be forced into that wretched secret Salisbury-
Schouvaloff Agreement—an Agreement which placed Russia in a
position of mastery in the East (for so all Asia of course regards
it)—they foresaw that they would immediately have to face other
concessions to Russian diplomacy if they wished to avoid a costly
and dangerous war on the Indian frontier. Surely it is only kind
to doubt this assertion. And it happens that there is ministerial
authority for doubting it; for not only did one of our Plenipoten
tiaries at Berlin, speaking as Secretary of State for India, publicly
ridicule the fear of Russian influence on India, but his more
important colleague assured us only a few weeks ago that the rela
tions of Russia and England were " essentially friendly," and that
the Czars Government were now convinced that "a restless and
warlike spirit is one t hat must d ebase and pe rhaps £ven ruin
| their country." And when Lord Beaconsfield said this he was
already aware that the Czar's mission was planted at Cabul,
that certain menacing military operations were observable
in the Russian armies in Central Asia, and much besides. And
what are we to understand by the official saying that the pre
sent situation as it now presents itself has been provided for ?
That it ought to have been provided for we know; because,
according to a statement apparently authorized by the Viceroy,
the Government were informed about the Russian mission in June,
and might surely have foreseen then all that has followed. If we
look to our military preparations, they certainly do not yield any
clear evidence that the situation was not only foreseen but
provided for. How about the still open difficulty as to the hill
tribes, for instance ? But of course some provision may have been
made, then or since, of a diplomatic character. For anything the
world knows to the contrary, there may be another secret
understanding with Russia, by which she agrees to withdraw
from the Afghanistan scene, either in consideration of conces
sions already rendered or yet to be allowed. Indeed, a few
days ago one of the ministerial papers bade us expect to hear
that " shere Ali is relying upon a policy the mainsprings of
which have been broken by events ;" and that he may find him
self " disowned and deserted." The probability seems to be, how
ever, that if Shere Ali is to be disowned and deserted, that
event will not take place until the understandings between
England and Russia which began with the Salisbury-SchouvalofT;
Agreement have been carried further. In what is called a sig
nificant letter from St. Petersburg, in the North German Gazette^
it is said, apropos of England and Afghanistan, that " the keynote
of Russian policy is that she wishes to gain tranquillity on the
basis of the Treaty of Berlin." This is pretty much what an
imaginary Russian diplomatist said yesterday in our own pages.
AN AFGHAN COMMUNICATION.
To the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette.
Sir ,—My friend Shumsheer u Deen (" the Scimitar of the Faith ")
has asked me to translate the enclosed, and he wished me to send it to
the Times, whose articles on Afghanistan are sent by telegraph to Tashkend
and thence to Cabul as rapidly as possible. But I have persuaded him
that Europeans do not like eating dirt, and still less publishing the fact
that they have done so. It is therefore his wish that I should send his
letter to you.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, The Translator>
Abbotsbury, Sept. 30.