Correspondence and Papers on Persia [‎5r] (14/107)

A TELEGRAPHIC LINE THROUGH AFGHANISTAN.
Independently of the direct influence which would ensue, the establish
ment of a telegraph line through a country which is for the most part inhabited
by the comparatively peace-loving population of Western Afghanistan, which
Minute by Sir Andrew Clarice written in July 1876 :—
“Concurring in the measures now being adopted to substitute for the
fitful and torpid correlations that luve >ince the Kabul Campaign character
ised oni’ attitude towards Afghanistan an alliance consistent and active, I
would prefer, even should the Amir's reply be unsatisfactory, to exercise
a little more of the patience of the past rather than to accept at once as abou
live and final any partial failure that may attend our overtures. Indeed,
looking to that past, we should be anticipating too much did we expect of
the Amir an unhesitating and cordial acceptance of a policy so modified: but
even if he should peremptorily decline to accede to the offer made him, there
will probably be left in his reply ample grounds for still maintaining with him
some relations, though they may he but distant and formal. Accepting the
possibility of this situation, I am inclined to the opinion that it would be
wise to avail ourselves of the suggestion thrown out by Lord Salisbury in
para. 40 of his instructions, and seriously consider a scheme for connecting
Kabul with our existing telegraph system.
1 question, however, whether it would be prudent, even if it were
practicable or acceptable to the Amir that the route taken should be that
indicated by Lord Salisbury, which I assume to be from Peshawar direct to
Kabul via the Kurram Valley. A project such as this would at once alarm the
Amir and could hardly fail to meet with opposition from him and from his
advisers. The line which I propose would follow the existing caravan route
from Shikarpur through the Bolau Pass to Quetta, thence on to lleiat aa
Kandahar and Girishk, and so on to Mashhad joining the Persian section of
the Indo-European system at Teheran.
It would supplement and support our Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. lines, and would in
fact be a duplication of them. And as such its raison d'etre need cause no
alarm to, or awake the suspicions of, the Amir, and in fact it would afford a
pretext for continuing negociations with him, for it might be suggested that
he should connect Kabul with the system by a line to be worked under his
own management and control, either at Ghazni or Herat, the latter, peihaps,
being the better route, because it would avoid the heavy snows and difficult
country traversed by the former.