Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎15v] (31/312)

ENGLAND AND CABUL.
REJECTION OF THE ENGLISH
MISSION.
KETURN TO PESHAWUR.
The following.Reuter's telegram relating to
the refusal of the Ameer of Afghanistan to |
receive the English Mission, of which General j
Sir Neville Chamberlain is the chief, was re- i
ceived too late to appear in more than a portion '
of our impression of yesterday:
"An officer of the Ameer of Afghanistan at
Ali Musjid has refused to allow the English
Mission to advance, and has crowned the heights
commanding the pass with his levies. After an j
interview of three hours' duration with the officer, j
and having warned him that his act would be I
regarded as the act of Shere Ali, himself. Major
Cavagnari and his escort returned to Jumrood,
1 and the Mission was withdrawn to Peshawur."
Other despatches confirm this intelligence, and
| go on to relate that, in threatening resistance to
the advance" of the Mission, the Ameer's represen
tative crowned the heights adjacent with armed
men,with a view to show to the British officers the
difficulties which would stand in the way of
an advance ; that the rebuff was given in the
presence of the two Indian Princes attached to ,
the Mission, and that the Russian Envoy re-
i mains at Cabul. It is further stated that the i
j Afghan outposts have been advanced to the
j centre of the Khyber Pass, and that the Ameer's
i officer has lately visited these posts ; but that
no sign of ill-feeling is manifested by the
Afghan population towards the British, who in
return will do all they can to conciliate Shere
Ali's Subjects as much as possible.
Admirable in composition and powerful, as re
presenting all the strength of Great Britain, the
Embassy has been stopped on the threshold of
the Khyber Pass, the vestibule of Afghanistan.'
The political sagacity on which that ruler
plumes himself has often before been found at
fault, but even those who knew him best—who
knew him, that is, at his worst—were unprepared
for so suicidal an error as this challenge to our
interference in the affairs of the " key of India."
Si£ Neville Chamberlain, an old personal
friend, had been appointed to lead to Cabul
a Mission stately enough in its appointments
to satisfy even Oriental taste ; but Sltere Ali
forbids the legate of England even to enter
the neutral territory of the Khyber tribes. A
rapid retrospect of our most recent relations with !
the Ameer will suffice to illustrate the position, and
to show why and where umbrage has been taken
by .the Afghan chieftain. When Dost Mahomed,
the father of the present Ameer, died in 1863,
Lord Lawrence recognised Shere Ali as his suc
cessor. The throne, however, was soon shaken
under him, and two usurpers in succession ruled in
Cabul, Shere Ali being meanwhile an exile in Tur
kestan,and Lord Lawrence recognised first one and
then the other as Ameer. Shere Ali, thanks to his
son, Yakub Khan, regained the throne, and
though he in his turn was again hailed as Ameer
by the Indian Government, he had not forgotten
that an equally ready recognition had strength
ened his two predecessors against him. Indeed,
the remembrance of that pitiful policy was so vivid
in the Ameer's mind in 1869, when he visited
Lord Mayo at Umballa, that he did not hesitate
to speak bitterly of it to the Viceroy. This was
his first grievance against us. But Lord Mayo
won the Afghan's heart by the royal welcome and
entertainment that was extended to him, and
Shere Ali returned home pleased for the time,
if not contented. But the first question asked
of him on his arrival at Cabul was, " Did the
Indian Government recognise Abdulla Jan as
your heir ?" and Shere Ali had to confess that
i ^Le chief object of his visit to Umballa had not ■
j been obtained—that, indeed, he had not even
seriously broached the subject of the heirship at
i the 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). . The diplomacy that had thus
baffled him Shere Ah in time grew to look
upon as a personal wrong, and in his formal cata
logue of grievances against the Indian Govern-
meiit it stands second on the list. Five others
find a prominent place, namely, the de
spatch of an embassy direct to the Mir of
Wakhan instead of through himself as that
chief's suzerain ; the mediation of Lord North-
brook for Yakub Khan when he was imprisoned
by his father; the Seistan arbitration, when
that province, in dispute between Cabul and
Persia, was adjudged to the. latter ; the
hearing refused to his complaints at the
Peshawur Conference in 1876 ; the occupa
tion of Quetta. A few words will illustrate
the validity or the reverse of each of these
"grievances." The mission to Wakhan was
undoubtedly a breach of international etiquette,
a Political Office blunder, and Shere Ali was
justified in his complaint. The mediation in
| fwvour of Yakub Khan was without the province
1 of the Indian Government, and, therefore,
as all unnecessary interference in the private
t affairs of foreign potentates must be considered,
j ill-advised. Lord Northbrook, by implica-
1 tion, reproached the Ameer for imprisoning the
son to whom he owed, his throne, but the Rus
sian General then on the Cabul frontier congra-
1 tulated him upon having got under lock and key
so dangerous a rebel. " You are not a kind and
grateful father," said the one. "You are a|
wise ruler," said the other. And Shere Ali, |
' comparing the two together—for both letters'
arrived in Cabul within a few hours of each
other—found the Russian congratulation more
, to his taste than the English admonition. On.
the next point, the Seistan arbitration, it can only
be said that the matter before the Commission
was a very delicate one, and that they decided
as they thought right. That many were
found at the time, and many since, to quarrel
with the award, does not strengthen Shere Ali
in his attitude of discontent at the results of an
arbitration to which he had voluntarily referred
his claims. The next "grievance" of the
j Peshawur Conference has been fairly stated by
Sir Lewis Pelly himself. The negotiations,
he tells us, came at once to a dead-lock be
cause, on the British side, a preliminary dis
cussion of the Ameer's complaints against us
could not be agreed to, and, on the Afghan,
beijause Shere Ali's representative would not
listen to our preliminary condition for future
friendship—the presence of a British official
at the Cabul Court. His last grievance on
the list, the occupation of Quetta, cannot,
even with the most indulgent advocacy of the
Ameer's privilege to see faults where he chooses,:
be, entertained as a cause of complaint. Shere
Ah himself agreed to that occupation, when in
prospect, and described himself as pleased at it.
Now that it is an accomplished fact, and he finds
it fo be a strong bit in the mouth of Cabul, the
Ameer protests. But the time for protest has
passed. When the two countries were on
friendly terms any opposition from him would
no doubt have been received with deference ;
but now that the immense strategic value of the
position has been made prominent by the rup
ture of those friendly relations, objection to our
presence at Quetta must be futile.
Such, then, are the seven immediate causes of
the present situation. On sentimental grounds
the Ameer may have much to reproach us
with, but, since 1869, there has been nothing
in our relations with Cabul to justify Shere
Ali in the charge he brings against us of
political or international immorality. On our
side, however, we have distinct breaches of '
faith to complain of. Both the Ameer and'
Russia have long known that the Indian
Government, representing England, will not
tolerate Russian influence at the Court of
Cabul, and each has formally promised, not once
but often, that such influence should neither^ be
extended to nor admitted into Afghan councils.
In 1869, 1874, 1375, and again in 1876, Russia
explicitly declared that Cabul should never j
come within the limits of her Asiatic enter-1
1 prise; and, over and over again, Cabul i
has promised that if Russia ever attempted i
negotiation she would not listen. Yet a month
ago a Russia n em bassy visited Cabulj and was;
j honoured with an ostentatious display of wel- j
! come. The guns that Saluted General Abramov I
and his escort proclaimed the .overthrow of Bri
tish influence beyond the Suleiman range, and
their voice resounded throughout the length and
breadth of India/ In the East rumour is often
as fatal as disaster, but Lord Lytton, with an