Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎50r] (102/312)

J a A YacJS
i9eto^.
ENGLAND AND AFGHANISTAN.
The Bombay correspondent of the Standard states that the following is the
personnel of the staff for the expeditionary army as at present decided
. The column concentrating at Peshawur, 15,000 strong, will be commanded by General
Crawford Trotter Chamberlain, C.S.I., at present commander of the Oude division. He
is brother of Sir Neville Chamberlain, and distinguished himself much in the last Afghan
w ar. The garrison of Quetta is being reinforced by 3,000 troops, British and native ;
4, coo troops are assembling at Thull; the reserve of 6,000 men will be collected at
; Mooltan early in October. General Roberts commands the-column at Kohat. Colonels
Cobbe and Tytler will each command a brigade of infantry. Colonel Clough will have
the cavalry brigade. The headquarter staff will consist of Major Galbraith, 85th Foot,
assistant adjutant-general; Major Collet, assistant quartermaster-general; Colonel
Perkins, chief engineer. Lieutenants Spratt and Childers will be the field engineers
of the force, Captain Wynnefield will be telegraph officer, and Lord William
Peresford one of the aides-de-camp. General Biddulph will command the Quetta
column, having as his brigadiers Colonel Appleyard and Colonel Nuttall, of the
Bombay army, with probably Colonel Fane, of the Staff Corps, in command
of the cavalry brigade. Major Wolseley will be assistant adjutant-general ; Captain
R. G. Stewart, assistant quartermaster-general; Colonel Hitchens, chief engineer;
and Captain Bisset, aide-de-cam^. General Stewart commands the reserve column,
and Colonel Baxter and Colonel Hughes will be brigadiers of the infantry
Colonel A. Hills is appointed assistant adjutant-general, and Captain E. F. Chapma i
assistant quartermaster-general. The following troops, in addition to those befor
detailed, have been ordered up to Kohat:—F Battery A Brigade, and nth Battery 9th
Brigade, under Colonel Alfred Lindsay, and the 8th Battery 4th Brigade, and the 3rd
Peshawur Mountain Battery, under Colonel Le Mesurier. The 5th Company of Sappers
and the 32nd Pioneers are ordered to march at once to Quetta. The A Battery B
Brigade, G Battery 4th Brigade, and the 5th, 9th, and nth Batteries nth Brigade will
join the reserve at Mooltan. A garrison battery from Madras, and one from Bombay,
with a siege train, will probably be despatched to Sukkur. A telegram from Rawul
iPindee states that the troops are all ready to march, but are awaiting carriage, which is
not expected to be ready for some days.
RUSSIA AND AFGHANISTAN.
The Morning Post, discussing the question whether Russia will leave
Afghanistan in the lurch or will support the Ameer, believes the answer
entirely depends upon circumstances. The guesses of those political
writers who suggest the possibility of Russia's being only intent upon
making a ^bargain" with England, and extorting "concessions" from
England, will be probably discovered to be nearer to the mark than any
other attempted elucidations of the problem in Central Asia. The
"consideration" which Prince Gortschakoff hopes to obtain as
the price of withdrawing from Cabul can be found nowhere
else than in Turkey. It is the constant object of the Russian
diplomatists and commanders, since the signing of the Treaty
of Berlin, to make its practical outcome as nearly equivalent as possible
to the intended results of the Treaty of San Stefano. Muscovite diplomacy
is striving desperately to minimize or nullify the intended restrictions
of that treaty. Eastern Rou melia is being organized as the Congress
of Berlin hardly contemplated. The crushing out of the Rhodope
patriots was hardly in unison with the pious vows of pacification freely
exchanged across the green table in Prince Bismarck's palace. The
unrest in Armenia is still maintained. Russian generals laugh at the idea
of limiting the army of occupation to the 50,000 men permitted by the
plenipotentiaries of Europe. What will be the action of England in face
of these intended violations of the great international treaty of pacification ?
Russia must have reason to watch with anxiety how English diplomacy
will assert itself, and it is no idle supposition which connects the
treacherous move at Cabul with the design to embarrass British action
south of the Balkans and within the new frontiers of the Asia Minor
which we have guaranteed against the Cossack.
The AJghandifticulty continues to be largely discussed by the continental press.
In Germany, the Times Berlin correspondent says, the Conservative journals
are favourable to Russia ; the Governmental organs are reserved and endeavour
to be impartial, but rather incline towards the Russian side ; but the rest of the
German press is anti-Russian. Of the Liberal journals, the more moderate
represent military measures as unavoidable and just; while the more advanced,
though likewise defending the action of the Calcutta authorities, dwell upon the
remissness of the London Cabinet in allowing things to reach their present
position. In Italy the action of the Ameer is, a Standard telegram says, openly
attributed to Russian influence. In France the matter does not attract much
attention. The Temps, which is an exception to this indifference, says that
the English must endeavour to place some one more trustworthy on the throne
of Cabul, but that the attitude of England towards Russia is the embarrassing
side of the question. As to the Russian press, the Berlin correspondent of the
Times says that its description of the situation is that of " a noble-minded and
independent native resisting rapacious England, and looking for sympathy to
generous Russia, whose civilizing philanthropy is fostering peace and progress
on his northern frontiers." A Renter's telegram from Berlin says that it
is believed there that the question will not lead to any explanations between
England and Russia ; and another despatch states that the Russian Government
will permit Russian merchants and manufacturers to sell arms and ammunition
to both parties in the i mpending war.
AFGHANISTAN.
According to Baron Renter's reporters. Lord Augustus Loftus, the British
Ambassador at St. Petersburg, in passing through Germany on his return
to the Russian capital, had an interview with Prince Gortschakoif. But
" it is believed that the Afghanistan question will not lead to any explana
tions between England and Russia." The establishment of a mission at
Cabul is in complete violation of Russian engagements with England; and
however much, or however little, the conduct of the Ameer may be due to
Russian suggestion and support, this step is what we have already described
it: a deliberate rupture of an agreement upon which peace between the
two nations in the East was based. And the Russian envoy is domiciled