Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎70r] (143/312)

mula, must be blind to the fact that the application
of political doctrine varies in accordance with the
conditions. He must also have curious notions as
to the obligations imposed upon us bv the rights in
India which have been handed down to us "by our
predecessors.
So much for the past; the considerations which
must determine our future action are not less clear.
By all means let us, if we can, come to a
peaceful arrangement with the barbarian who bas
wronged us. But can we ? The answer does not
wholly depend upon us. For it is obvious that fcbe
terms which we shall demand of the Amber must
be of a very stringent nature. He has not only
done us an injury, but we have now unmis
takable proof of his purposes as well as of the
purposes of Russia; and in our own interests we
must take care that there shall be no more serious
trouble in that quarter. Should he refuse our i
conditions—which there is little doubt he will
do — will Lord Lawrence be good enough j
to say in what way peace is possible?
He is sufficiently acquainted with Oriental nations
to know how they regard a Power which tamely
submits to insult. If we allowed the Amber to
escape without requiring from him ample reparation
we should be held in contempt by every people j
in Asia; and throughout India the belief would grow
up that we are afraid of the Power which has so
long been advancing upon us, and that our ultimate
displacement is a decree of fate. But, says Lord
Lawrence , the difficulties of an Afghan war
are very great, and we suppose there is no
one acquainted with the subject who will
think his description of them much exag
gerated. That, however, is not the question.
If we are bound in defence of oar rights and our
! honour to undertake the enterprise, its difficulties
; can afford no argument for shrinking from it. Lord
Lawrence is much nearer the heart of the subject
when he urges that the finances of India would
be rained by the cost of a war with Afghanistan.
He seems to take for granted that the whole of the
expense would be thrown upon our Eastern de
pendency? but he has arrived too rapidly
I at that conclusion. That India will bear no
share of tne burden we shall not say; bat
that she will not be asked to pay the entire bill may,
we think, be confidently averred. The war. if war it
is to be, will be mainly an Imperial one. It will be
undertaken to avenge an insult hurled at England,
and to uphold English power. We should, there
fore, be acting most unjustly iu making India
defray the cost, even if India were a rich country ;
and how far she is from being rich every politician
too well knows. Thus the whole case presented by
Lord Lawrence bi-eaks down. His view is narrow
and one-sided; and his statement of it, while
injurious to bis own reputation as a states-
1 man, will be of essential service to the Go-
j vernment by showing in the most effectual manner
how feeble and unsatisfactory are the only argu-
1 saents yitish can be urged against' its nolicv. ^ |
FOREWARNED BUT NOT FOREARMED.
to the editor of the globis.
I Sib ,—Some five or six years ago Colonel EobartSj of
i the B ngal Irregular Cavalry, forwarded to the Indian
i Government certain communications of a very important
character. Their subjeot-omtter was th activity of^S
liussian iutn :ue beyond the frontier, and the colonel •
claimed to be in psssession of very deficits information
obi . this head. Several years ago I was personally
acquainted with Colonel Ko bares at News her a and
Pesbawur, and I know that, owing to peculiar circum-
stanoas, he was in a position to obtain much earlier
and more trustworthy news from beyond, the. fron
tier than generally reached the ears: of the
■ Indian political denartment. If be affirmed that
Muscovite trickery was at work among the
border tribes and in Afghanistan 1 should be pre-
cared to attach the fullest credit to the state
ment. That he forward d state hi ents to this effect j
to the Go/ernment I have food reason to believe.
What has become of them ? Were they pigeon-holed
at Calcutta, or shpuli we look for them on the shelves
of the India Offiea ? Wherever they may bv3, they ought
to be at once given to the light. For wb might learn
from them not only Russia's line of conducti in t e past,
but the course we may expect her to fo.Uow in t::e
future. Eccentric as Colonel Bobarts was in some re
spects, he always struck me as a remarkably shrewd
observer of current events, while his exceptionally close
relations with the native? on the border gave him
glimpses behind the scenes which were denied to others.
It would be of some interest to know whether the
colonjlV: warnings have been fulfilled, and I therefore
venture to* hope that the missing letters will bo hunted
up, wherever t".ev maybe, and made known to the
world.—Faithfully yours, Tbans-Twdc-s.
October 1.
LOED LAWRENCE AND AFGHANISTAN. '2(
The Times prints a letter from. Lord Lawrence on the
subi ct of our relations with Afghanistan, and re
marks " Tne fact that his judgment is given against
the policy of Lord Lytton in relation to Afghanistan is
, a very important one, and it is entitled to full weight
1 even when it is dissociated from the reasons on which it
is ostensibly based. But the reasons themai ives are
good or bad in virtue of their intrinsic soundness, and
must be es imated entirely apart from the fact that it
is Lord Lawrence who puts them forth. If eighteen
months or two years ago a sudden change had been ;
effected^in the policy of the Indian Government towards
Afghanistan Lord Lawrence's argument would be
unanswerable. It is not" our fault that the
old policy has had to be abandoned. We are
not concerned at the present juncture to de
fend all the steps taken by Lord Lytton and bis pre
decessors in t ieir protracted negotiations with the
Ameer, but it is manifest that the old policy has been
changed, so far as it has been changed, pot by any
j alteration in our friendly disposition towards Share Ali,
but by the proof which he hims lf bas afforded that he
rejects our friendship and prefers the alliance of a Pow r
. whose interests, to say the least, are not identical with
ours. This result; which in the face of .recent occur
rences can hardly be gainsaid, may have been brought
about by blunders on our part. If so, the blame, when
the time comes for retrospect, must be distributed
among all those who are found to have incurred it. But
the pressing question of the moment is not to ascertain
what has brought us to the present pass, but to deter
mine what i? to be done in the circumstances in which
we find ourselves. Lord Lawrence asks what we are to
gain by going to war with the Ameer. Very little,
- perhaps, even supposing war to be determined upon.
But we must ask in rejoinder, what is the alterna
tive ? Wo have received an affront to which it is
impossible tamely to submit. Lord Lawrence has
little doubt that ii!: we refrain from forcing our mission
on the Ameer—which would in present circumstances be
a somewhat humiliating concession'—he would make
any apology we could reasonably call for. Even so,
; however, we should still be in a very embarrassing
position. Russia, in defiance of repeated pledges, would
probably be represented by an Envoy at Cabul, whose
influence may already be traced, as we learn this morn
ing from Vienna, in Shere All's relations with the
Sultan, while the Indian Government would have to
depend for its relations with a proud and wayward
n ji ^hbour on the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. erf native residents—a moae of
communication which has again and a am proved un
satisfactory and misleading. We are ready, as we have
all along been, to come to terms wi h the Ameer, but
we can no longer permit him to be in doubt as to the
terms which satisfy both our honour and our security,
and it is necessary to let him know, if we would not be
discredited in the eyes of all India, that, we cannot per
mit him to insult us with imp unity/'
THE MISSION TO CABUL.
The Daily Telegraph observes that " if the reply of the
Czar's Government 10 the Note addressed by the Brit is.) ,
Cabinet upon the Cabul question has been at all cor
rectly reported iu the telegram from Paris published
yesterday, it must be called evasive anal incomplete.}
The real truth is that the Mission to Cabul is the direct, |
iioreaeen, and inevitable consequence of the schemes I
which Russia i as unfalteringly ursued since 1856.
We have never contested—indeed, we have alwav .5
admitted—her righs to adopt a conquering policy if
she pleases; but it is not the less uudenjabl the
right of nations nuenaced by the part she ha- deli-
b rately chosen to resist her encroachments. Unless
the fact that she has gone out ot her way to seek a
position whence she could disturb British India be
fully recognised, we never shall have recourse to the
needful counteracting measures. How any doubts can
still linger in the minds of statesmen is a matter most
d fficulc to comprehend; but so long as Russia haa such
ardent friends and eager apologists in this country she
will rightly estimate their services as-an encouragement
to proceed. Her aim has been patent for many years.
The results predicted by cool and well-informed men
have occurred, none save tiui unteachable or preju
diced can be blind to the full significance of Rus-1
s;an advances in Central Asia, They mean, as they;
always meant, hostility to England, who is supposed
to be vulnerable in the Easv. They are in,ended
Vo divide our strength and create disturbances, or the
(Lead of them beyond the Indus, while they are so
planned and conducted as to bring the offensive power
of. Russia nearer and nearer to the British frontier. The
object is not an invasion, but a formidable diversion,
undertaken with the hope that we should be either de-
tonred from upholding our interests pn the Bosphorus
aud the Dardanelles, or preven ed from doing so by the
Anglo-Russian j arty, which has accepted or been the
dupe of Muscovite professions, although these haye been
discredited as soon as uttered. Not even the ingenuity ;
of faction can explain away the Russian Mission -to
Cabal; and those who, in whatever shape, now lend:
their aid to promote the schem b of Ritpsia will bp guilty j
of treason to the Britieh Empire,"