Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎41v] (84/312)

MH'tyyiMiF^ggan
action has been introduced. Our notice to Russia
that she must not meddle with Afghanistan was
Igiven long ago. We are compelled now to make
vSure that it will be attended to. The insult S heiie
Ali has offered us is good proof that it is high
time for us to be stirring. The need has come
upon us whether we wished for it or not, and it
has so come as to lead us naturally to the
course most certain to secure the objects
we have been aiming at, and which, per
haps, it would not in any case have been
within our power to attain peaceably. Rus
sia has been intending, of course, to play her
own game. She has, we think, played our game
without intending it. It is S heue A li , and not
England, that has most reason to cry out. He has
been treated as a cat's-paw to serve Russian pur
poses, and as he has consented to be so used he must
not wonder if he finds his fingers somewhat
severely burnt. Our quarrel, thus far, is with him,
and with him only. We do not suppose Russia
will intervene to save him from the punishment
she has brought upon him. We shall be amply
satisfied with excluding Russia from Afghanistan,
and shall not care to follow up the question fur
ther, or hold her to account for conduct which is
certainly not friendly, but which is not openly
hostile. That she will succeed in diverting our
• attention from the Eastern Question and the
Treaty of Berlin is not likely. She must make some
more formidable diversion if she is to. do this ;
nor are we the only European Power that she will
find interested in keeping her to her pledged
word. That she has formed the set purpose of
creating this diversion we are not, however,
willing to believe. The Treaty of Berlin is in
process of being carried out with no more delay
than must have been foreseen from the first, and
with no more than the inevitable friction that must
always attend the adjustment of irreconcilable aims.
The endeavour of Russia to push forward
into Afghanistan has been a breach of good
I faith, but it will be punished sufficiently by its
failure. There will still be room left in the East for
the legitimate expansion of Russia, Her civilizing
mission, if we may so term it, has as yet been im
perfectly fulfilled. We seek to oppose it so far only
as to make sure that it shall not interfere
with our own work in India. In its own sphere we
wish it all success, but that sphere, we cannot sufier
Russia to fo rget, does not include Afghanistan.
N ews from I ndia .—The last overland mail
brings Bombay papers to the 6th inst. Sir Neville Cham
berlain was then at Simla, awaiting the Ameer's reply to
the Viceroy's intimation of the coming Embassy. The
Times of India .says :—" Lord Lyttou's letter to the '
Ameer is being conveyed by a native envoy, who reached
Dakka on his way to Cabul on September 1, and was to ■
leave again the same nighc at midnight for Jellalabad. He
has been hospitably entertained by General Gholam
Haidar, who gives him escort",. We also hear from Simla
that the latest advices from Cabul, dated August 21, state
that the Ameer, after much persuasion from the Mustaphi, ^
attended 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). again for the first time. All kinds of
rumours are current, as appears from the following Simla
telegram :—' Reports are becoming more positive that
Yakoob Khan has escaped to Ghuznee, where there is said
to be some disturbance or rising. Government accounts
throw doubts on this, but no very early or accurate in
formation regarding Cabu] affairs seems to be received here
at present. Kussian movements in that direction appear to
be unknown. Kumour says we shall force on the mission
whether the ijAmeer consents or not. Quiet preparations
are being made to this end, and it is understood that we
may move on Herat.' With a view to eventualities, a
contemporary makes the following suggestions :—' To
secure a position which would really dominate Cabul, a
force should be moved into the valley of the Koorum River
without loss of time. The military advantage of an occu
pation of this post is notorious to all acquainted with the
topography of the frontier. The valley is extensive,
fertile, highly cultivated, and capable of supplying a
large force. It is inhabited principally by the Tun tribe
of the Shiah sect, who are extremely well disposed towards
the British,hating their Sunni rulers at Cabul.' " The Times
of India adds :—" The Indian troops are returning from
Cyprus. Three or four transports have arrived during tho
week with the Goorkhas and the Madras regiment. The
men all appear to be in excellent health and spirits, though
much disappointed at not having had a brush with the
Russians. They remain in Bombay but a few hours aftei
arrival, as they are despatched to their various stations up
country as soon as possible. From telegraphic advices
from Cyprus, dated the 2d inst., we learn that the whole
of the Indian Contingent, except the Engineers and
Sappers, have embarked to return to India. Her Majesty's
transport Simoom, with the 9th Regiment N.I., is ex
pected to arrive about the 9th of September. The
native who attacked Mr. Tyrell, C.S., a short time since
while the latter was playing at lawn-tennis at Agra, has
been tried and sentenced to transportation for life.
The Committee of the Indian Association propose to con
vene a public meeting of the inhabitants of Calcutta on the
6th of September, with a view to thank Mr. Gladstone and
those members of Parliament who voted with him in the
debate^on the Vernacular Press Act, and to take such steps
as may be deemed necessary in the interests of the Verna
cular Press. The committee has resolved to take advantage
of the jpublic meeting to appoint a standing committee,
which shall watch the operation of the Act, and do what
may be necessary to procure its ultimate repeal. We learn
by telegraph from Simla that at yesterday's Viceregal
Legislative Council meeting Sir Alexander Arbuthnot in
troduced the Vernacular Press Amendment Bill, the
object of which is to repeal that portion of the|
Act which enables publishers of vernacular news
papers to withdraw themselves from its restrictive provi-
sions by submitting their proofs to a Government official.
The Bill will be taken into consideration on the 26th of
September, when Sir A. Arbuthnot will reviewj discussions
which have taken place in India and England on the Act.
Major Sandeman, Agent to the ♦ Governor-General for
Beloochistan, left Dera Ghazi Khan on the 3d ultimo and
proceeded vid the Khetran Valley and the Marri and Bugti
Hills to Quetta, where he is expected to arrive about the
beginning of September. Major Sandeman then goes to
Mekran with a view to finally adjusting the last remaining
dispute between his Highness the Khan of Khelat and his
chiets. All is quiet in Khelat now ; and the fact that no
hitch should have arisen in Major Sandeman's arrangements,
although he has been more than six months absent from
Khelat, is in itself sufficient evidence that the country has
been satisfactorily settled. The Chief Commissioner of the
Central Provinces has written a report on the result of the
experiment in colonization tried at Charwa in the Honhan*
gabad district. The experiment has ended in failure, which
is chiefly ascribed to the repugnance with which the natives
of India seem to regard inter-provincial emigration. Re
marking on the report, the Secretary of State is of opinion
that it will be impolitic to incur any further expenditure
on schemes of this character. It is _ rumoured that the
Duke of Buckingham will succeed Sir George Bowen as
Governor of Victoria. Sir George Bowen's term of office
will expire this autumn. It is understood in Madras that
the Queen,Jon the eve of his Grace's departure for Madras,
exacted a promise from the Duke that he would not remain
more than three years in India. His three years will be
up on the 23d of November next. The Kashmir authorities
reckon that from 5,000 to 7,000 emigrants have left for
British territory. Such emigration is not, however,
looked on favourably by the Kashmir officials, who fear
that the emigrants will not return. Those who have ap
peared in the Rawul Pmdee, Jhelum, and Gujranwalla
! districts mostly belong to the classes which refuse to work,
i and prefer to steal or beg ; and the relief works started
for them in Rawul Pinde6 have had to be abandoned ac
cordingly. Notwithstanding the partial failure of the rice
crop in Kashmir, the maize is nearly ripe, and it is hoped
that the distress will be very shortly considerably relieved.
The abuses lately brought to light in connexion with the
pilgrim traffic and quarantine arrangements in Egypt have
been so serious as to call for remonstrance on the part of
the Home Government with the Egyptian authorities. It
seems that not only is the quarantine system a bad one,but
corruption and cruelty are largely practised by the officials
who are charged with the working of it. This was notably
the case during the last pilgrimage season in the Red Sea,
when the pilgrims were allowed to lie out in the filth and
stagnant water of the streets of Jeddah and other Arabian
ports during the heavy rain which fell in December, and
bribes were freely taken by the quarantine officials to allow
communication between the ship and the shore, and native
craft to leave the various ports without restriction. At
one time affairs became so bad that the pilgrims
revolted ; |both at the quarantine stations, where many
escaped, and on board the ships, where they threatened the
lives of the captains and crews. The Egyptian Government
have therefore been warned that Her Majesty's Government
can no longer permit a state of things which causes misery,
crime, and disease, which inflicts needless hardship and
losses upon legitimate trade, and which appears only
to serve as a cloak for corruption and extortion ;
' Another hard but quiet and modest worker,' says the
Hindoo Palriot, 1 has passed away from among us.^j Babu
Thakoordas Chuckerbutty, t) Head Assistant of the
Home Secretariat 1; was formerly an Assistant in the
Bengal Secretariat, and was subsequently taken to
the Board of Revenue, from which office he was trans
ferred to the Home Secretariat by Sir William Grey,
who was very fond of him. In this office he was highly
appreciated by the distinguished gentlemen who from time
' to time held the office of Home Secratary since his ap
pointment. But Babu Thakoordas Chuckerbutty's useful'
ness lay in another sphere. From early life he interested
himself in the cause of education. He was the first person
who introduced the Glasgow training system into India. V
He established a school at Jonye, where this system was
regularly taught, and under his intelligent supervision the ?
institution rapidly rose to the position of a first-class
school. The Jonye School has sent forth several clever
young men, many of whom are now members of the bar.
in Calcutta he originally founded the institution which
now goes by the hename of tlie Metropolitan Institution."
JJUHAN1STAN .
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—In The Times of the 24th inst. I observed an article
in which the Khoord Cabul Pass is mentioned as being the
most formidable physical obstacle to a force marching from
Jelalabad on the capital. The article goes on to say ;—
" There is, however, another pass a short distance to the
south, so the defenders' attention might easily be dis
tracted."
It appears to me that sufficient prominence has hardly
been given to this latter pass, which seems to be an im
portant one. When General Nott retired by the Khoord
Cabul Pass, the 42d Bengal Native Infantry formed the
rearguard. An Afghan, in expectation of a reward, in
formed the commanding officer that he could show him a
road in all respects much better suited for the passage of '
an army than the Khoord Cabul Pass. The late Captain
Mainwaring, of the 42d Bengal Native Infantry, was
detached with 100 men to inspect the road in question.
He found it presented no serious obstacles to the passage
of troops, as it lay over the hills, and was not commanded
by overhanging cliffs, and that with a little trouble it
could easily be made passable for artillery. Starting
from the town of Cabul towards the Khoord Cabul Pass,
about 11 miles, the main road passed over marshy ground
and across a small river which falls into the Cabul river.
The first camping ground was near the head of the
Khoord Cabal Pass, and thence the road indicated by the
Afghan branched off to the right (west) to the slope of a hill,
then, turning south, joined the Khoord Cabul Pass at the
second camping ground, 12 miles or so from the first. Thus
the road in question forms an angle to the right (west) of
1 the Khoord Cabul Pass. Captain Mainwaring traversed
this road the whole way, from the point where it leaves the
main road at the first camping ground to the second, where
it rejoins the Khoord Cabul Pass. From this it would ap.