Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎2r] (3/312)

fti.U t\CUL
No reply has yet been received at Calcutta from Shere Ali as to the
English mission to Cabul. A telegram to the Times says that the reply is
awaited with eager interest, the fact being universally recognized that the
present is one of the most critical epochs in the history of British India.
A Constantinople telegram of Saturday night's date says that the Porte
intends shortly to despatch an embassy to the Ameer of Afghanistan.
The Overland Mail has brought news from Bombay up to the 16th of August.
The intelligence has, however, for the most part been anticipated by the tele-
| graph. The Indian papers are chiefly occupied with the English mission to
Cabul. The Times of India says ;—
Our relations with the Afghanistan ruler have not been very friendly since the abrupt
termination of the Peshawur Conference last year. There seems to be some prospect of
their being improved, as we learn from Simla that a special mission under the charge of
General Sir Neville Chamberlain, G.C.B., G.C.S .I., Commander-in-Chief of Madras, is
about to proceed to Cabul. The mission will comprise Major Cavagnari, C.S.I. Deputy
Commissioner of Peshawur, Major St. John, R.E., Captain Hammick, Military Secre-
| tary to Sir Neville Chamberlain, and a medical officer, and will be escorted by a
detachment of the Guides Cavalry and the nth Bengal Lancers. The mission will pro-
bably leave Peshawur early in September. In the meantime the Russians are there
before us, for the Government of India have learned by a newsletter from Cabul of the
arrival there of a Russian mission of three European officers, accompanied by an escort
of Cossacks and Usbegs. The head of the mission is believed to be General Abramoff
the Russian Governor-General of S amar cand. The mission reached Cab ul on
the 22nd of July, and was received by the Ameer in durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). , when the chief of the
mission delivered two letters to the Ameer—oije from the Czar and one from the
• 0 yf™ 01 j: General Turkestan. On the 2nd of August a grand review was held
in tneir nonour, to which troops and representatives had been summoned from all
parts ot Afghamstan, and after the review the Ameer gave the envoy written replies to
the Russian letter, which were immediately sent off by a special messenger to Tashkend.
. either the contents of the letter which have passed, nor the Russian proposals, have
een made public, though there are plenty of wild rumours about them, and the Russians
are popularly believed to desire some establishments in the north-west of Afghanistan.
1 hey talk openly of opening trade between Russia and Afghanistan, praise the Cabul
manufactures, which they say might be improved by the admission of Europeans into
the country, and express a desire to visit Herat and the Western frontier.
ru Th u S f r ^ e pa P er ' in a fading article, expresses the hope that Sir Neville
Cnamberlam will be armed with sufficient powers to restoie the prestige we
have lost in the rude Court of Cabul " If he merely goes into Afghanistan to
exchange civil compliments and to come back rebuffed, we shall be plunged
before we know where we are into a new Afghan campaign. For it is clear
that, with the Ameer's leave or without it, we cannot allow Russian outposts to
be established upon our very frontier. As Lord Salisbury said on Tuesday,
British interests in Afghanistan exceed Russian interests.'"
The Bombay Gazette says :—" The mischief having been done, the Govern
ment of India has resolved to try an antidote, and a special mission under the
charge of General Sir Neville Chamberlain, G.C.B., G.C.S.I., is about to
proceed to Cabul. The mission will comprise Major Cavagnari, C.S.I., Deputy
Commissioner of Peshawur ; Major St. John, R.E., Captain Hammick, military
secretary to Sir Neville Chamberlan, and a medical officer. They will be
escorted by detachments of the Guides Cavalry and the 1 ith Bengal Lancers,
and will probably leave Peshawur early in September. The question is whether
the British mission will not arrive too late—whether the Russians, coming first
on the scene and with the full weight of the prestige won by their victories over
the Turks in the field, and their more recent diplomatic successes at Berlin,
will not have succeeded in persuading the Ameer to consent to whatever pro
posals they may have had to make—whether, in short, Lord Lytton has not
allowed himself to be overreached by the Russians at Cabul even more grossly j
than was the Earl of Beaconsfield at the European Congress." The Madras 1
Athencsum believes the Cabul mission to be a mockery, delusion, and snare.
" The real aim of Russia is through China and Kashgar to India." The same
paper, in another article, says :—
Our last information concerning the Khan of Kashgar was that he was being hard
pressed by the Chinese. We gave it unhesitatingly as our opinion that the Russians
had been inciting the Chinese to effect his overthrow. And it looks as if our surmise was
correct. Beg Kuli Beg, the ex-ruler of Yarkand, is now in the hands of the Russians as
a prisoner ; they on their part refusing to hand him up to the Chinese authorities. Our
information is that Beg Kuli Beg is a prisoner at Khokand in Russian Turkestan. Now
that a "stopgap" has been taken out of the way in the shape of this brave man, who
has maintained an unequal conflict against Mongolian power for eleven long years, the
Chinese, and possibly the Russians, have a clear path into India, Who is to blame ?
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