Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎71r] (145/312)

y
"Menace ah the part she bas deliberately choyea
to resist her encroachments. Unless the fact
that, she has gone ont of her way to seek a posi
tion whence she could disturb British India be
fully recognised, we never shall have recourse to
the needful counteracting measures. How any
doubts can sfcill linger in the minds of statesmen
is a matter most difficult to comprehend ; but so
long as Russia has such ardeut friends and eager
apologists in this country she will rightly esti-
1 mate their services as an encouragement to
proceed. Her aim has been patent for many
j years; her writers, generals, and men of science
have openly avowed the designs she has in view ;
1 they are set down plainly in deeds ; and, if in-
| difference or levity were at all pardonable in
! 1866, it is absolutely without excuse in 1878. ^
The conquest of the Khanates would have been I
| deprived of ail sense if it had not been in-1
tended to servo the purpose of approaching
Cabul; yet, who j * this ulterior end was repeatedly
pointed out, :ne warning voices were scoffed at
and disr egarde d. i\ow t he results predicte d by
cool and well-informed men nave occurred, none
save the unteachable or prejudiced can be blind
to the full significance of Russian advances in
Central Asia. They mean, as they always
, meant, hostility to England, who is supposed to
be vulnerable in the East. They are intended 1
to divide our strength, and create disturbances
or the dread of them beyond the Indus, while
they are so planned and conducted as to bring
the offensive power of Russia nearer and I
nearer to the British frontier. The, object i ; :
' is not an invasion, but a formidable diversion, j
undertaken with the hope that we should be :
either deterred from upholding our interests ;
oa the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, or pre
vented from doing so by the Anglo-Russian
party, which has accepted or been the dupe of
Muscovite professions, although these have been
discredited as soon as uttered. Not even the
ingenuity of faction can explain away the Rus
sian Mission to Cabul; and those who, in what
ever shape, now lend their aid to promote the
.chemes of Russia, will be guilty of treason to
the Bri tish Empire.
SHEIIE AL1 AND THE KORAN,
to the editor of " the daily telegraph."
i S ir— -In the present critical condition of
Anglo-Indian politics with regard to Afgh anistan,
recriminations, of whatever kind, will prove
valueless and superfluous, inasmuch as they aro
now too late to remedy the grave mistakes com
mitted on that line of British policy. I beg |
leave, however, to discuss in a brief and succinct
form my views on those measures Avhich are now
inevitable to efface the gross insult which Shero
Ali Khan has offered to England by rejecting irj
a manner so offensive the mission of Sir Nevilk
1 Chamberlain.
i Shere Ali has not only rudely offended Eng-
• land, to whom he is indebted for many kind-
j nesses—nay, to whom he owes even his throne, i
| for without the English subsidies given to hini
formerly he would not have been able to secure
his ascendency among his turbulent, avaricious
subjects;—but he has also sinned against,
the prescripts- of the Koran. That " holy i
book" of the Mohammedans very clearly says, I
La
zevalun f : il sefirun '
Do no injury t<L
1 the Ambassador." Shero Ali was, moreoycr,
regardless of the prophet's wordsj " Akramu
. j ed dhaifun vo lau kana kafirun "—"You mustj
honour; the guest, be ho even an infidel." Bici
| Neville and his representative were entitled to" a
: good reception on the part of the Ameer for
being Ambassadorial, in spite of being Chris-
j tian. This consideration ougLt to bo kept pro-
■ minently in view before the Mohammedan sab- :
| jects of the Queen, who will certainly not
| approve of the behaviour of their co-religionist,
j whatever be their political tondenciea.
j That Shere Ali has besides acted up foolishly
;| as possible needs scarcely any further (jomment '
■-Although instigated by Colonel Stolietoff, th<
| Russian Envoy in Cabul, it is, nevertheless, very
likely that he will have to bear himseh
| the serious consequences of his rash ana
j imprudent behaviour. Confidering the ex
hausted condition of the Russian army
j and of the Russian Exchequer, I greatly
- j doubt whether he will be backed in a contest
j with England by his new friends from the;
iSorth. Such an eventuality would mean a re-
I opening of the Eastern Question, and even then
j the Ameer would be the worse of it, for whatevei? |
! turn the issue of that gigantic fight wouhj take,
i he would certainly not be the man who woiild I
| be replaced upon the throne in the Bala Hissar "■
of Cabul.
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CABUL FRONTIER TRIBES.
—
THE WAZI EIS.
Of the importance at this juncture of the
hill-men on the Afghan frontier, all the latest
news from India agrees to assure us. Such assur
ance, perhaps, was hardly needed, since, from
the first, we have drawn attention to the strange
concurrence of circumstances that has given.
these wild tribes so large an influence in the !
affairs of their powerful neighbours. That |
this influence will be exerted against the i
British some have been found to assert, but |
these prophets of evil have all the weight of I
past experience and the opinions of political;
officers on the frontier opposed to them. So!
much has been already done with the tribes!
that we believe more to be possible. That the t
hill-man should occasionally outrage all the!
conventionalities of Western ethics is not re- 1
markable. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly
a triumph of administration that he should have
been so often and for such long intervals enlisted
on the side of order. Take one powerful fede
ration as an example.
We have only to see the Wazirx on his own
hills to understand why the character of the
man must be startling in its incongruities—a
wild tangle of contradictions. And indeed, the
landscape he has looked upon from his birth is
more full of surprises. Rocks so black and
dreary and uncouth that the native calls them '
" hell stones," overlook valleys such as Cashmere '
itself may not rival. In the shade of heavy- 1
fruited vines that enmesh with their luxuriant
sprays the wild mulberry that supports them
the leopard lurks in ambush for the unwary
traveller. One hour the sunlight is lying I
warm, and clear, and calm upon the painted j
plains and the sombre hills; and in the next
there sweeps up from the north a dust storm,
filling all the space from hill to hill with a
dense dun murk, darkening the midday air to
gloomiest twilight, and hushing every voice
( of nature. Or the sun has set in a glory of
mellow light, and in the still heavy air the
sound of the lowing of the kine comes along the
valley, and the bark of the fox on the distant
hills maybe heard, when on a sudden the
lightning darts along the peaks, and all the
mountains, as if in conspiracy, roar out together,
echoing the distant thunder, and the placid vale
and the hill sides so lately silent are given up in
a transport of sudden fury to tumult and up
roar. Such is the home of the frontier hill-man
and such the scenes among which he has spent
his life. No wonder that he is picturesque him
self, all strong lights and shadows, bright colours
and threatening gloom. His dress, his gestures,
his speech are ail in unison with nature. He
gives names full of strange meanings to all the
objects around him, and his daily life is crowded
with queer, savage circumstances that make him
a most interesting study. Changeful, and sudden
in his changes, he resembles in character the
strange hybrid animal found among his hills, the
" boragga," neither wolf nor dog. In captivity
the creature never loses either nature, for after
licking its master's hand it will snap a finger off
or stop suddenly in its play to worry and kill its
playmate. The hill-man is at one time gloomy
and inhospitable as the mountain chains about
him that refuse to support vegetation and are
unvisited by animal life save the kites and vul
tures that wheel round the peaks. At another he
is smiling and bountiful to profusion, like the
valleys. And how violent is this contrast may
be judged from the two descriptions that follow.
One writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. (Mr. S. Thorbum), overlooking
the hills, says, " One feels as if in the pre
sence of the half bleached bones of some
enormous carcase, the ranges stretching away like
the close-ribbed back of some huge antediluvian
monster. You can almost count the ribs and
| the joints of the dead thing's spine. The dull
clay colour of the mass, together with the
solemn stillness which reigns around, help to
persuade the spectator that he is in the solitary
presence of death." Another writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. (Sir H.
Edwardes), looking down on the valley, breaks
out into rapturous description. " In spring it is
an emerald, and in winter its many-coloured bar-
vests look as if Ceres .had stumbled against the
Great Salt Range and spilt half her cornucopia
in this favoured vale. As if to make the land
scape perfect, a graceful variety of the
sheesham tree, whose boughs droop like the
i willow, is found here, and here alone, while
along the streams and round the villages the
thick fruit trees, festooned with the wild vine
y
"^menace abj the part she has deliberately chosen
to resist her encroachments. Unless the fact
that she has gone out of her way to seek a posi
tion 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 difficult to comprehend ; but so
long as Russia has such ardent friends and eager
apologists in this country she will rightly esti
mate their services as an encouragement to
proceed. Her aim has been patent for many
years ; her writers, generals, and men of science
have openly avowed the designs she has in view ;
1 they are set down plainly in deeds ; and, if in-
| difference or levity were at all pardonable in
1866, it is absolutely without excuse in 1878.
The conquest of the Khanates would have been
deprived of all sense if it had not been in-
tended to serve the purpose of approaching
Cabul; yetjwhoji this ulterior end was repeatedly
pointed out, ;iie warning voices were scoffed at
and dis regarded . I'Tow the results predicted by
cool and well-informed men have "occurred, none
save the unteachable or prejudiced can be blind
to the full significance of Russian advances in
Central Asia. They mean, as they always
meant, hostility to England, who is supposed to
be vulnerable in the East. They are intended
to divide our strength, and create disturbances
or the dread 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 deterred from upholding our interests
on the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, or pre
vented from doing so by the Anglo-Russian
party, which has accepted or been the dupe of
Muscovite professions, although these have been
discredited as soon as uttered. Not even the
ingenuity of faction can explain away the Rus
sian Mission to Cabul; and those who, in what
ever shape, now lend their aid to promote the
.chemes of Russia, will be guilty of treason to
the B ritish Empire.
SlIEliE ALI AND THE KORAN.
«
to the editor of "the daily telegraph."
i S ir— In the present critical condition of
: Anglo-Indian politics with regard to Afghanistan,'
j recriminations, of whatever kind, will prove
valueless and superfluous, inasmuch as they arc
now too late to remedy the grave mistakes com
mitted on that line of British policy. I beg
leave, however, to discuss in a brief and succinct
form my views on those measures which are now
inevitable to efface the gross insult which Shera
Ali Khan has offered to England by rejecting ia
a manner so offensive the mission of Sir Nevilk
j Chamberlain.
Shere Aii has not only rudely offended Eng
land, to whom he is indebted tor many kind*
| nesses—nay, to whom he owes even his throne,
| for without the English subsidies given to hira
formerly he would not have been able to securo
his ascendency among his turbulent, avaricious
i subjects—but he has also sinned against!,
j the prescripts- of the Koran. That " holy i
book" of the Mohammedans very clearly saya j
■j" La zevalun fil sefirun"—"Do no injury ul
| the Ambassador." Shore Ali was, moreoycr, .
regardless of the prophet's words, " Akramu |
j cd dhaifun vo lau kana kafirun "—"You must,
{honour the guest, be ho even an infidel." Sir!
| Neville and his representative wore entitled to - a
good reception on the part of the Ameer for
being Ambassadorial, in spite of being Chris-
( tian. This consideration oujjlit to be kept pro-
j minantly in view before the Mohammedan, sab- : .
| jects of the Queen, who will certainly not
J approve of the behaviour of their co-religionist, I
j whatever be their political tendencies.
That Shere Ali has besides acted as foolishly
as possible needs scarcely any further (jommenc H
Although instigated by Colonel Stolietoff, th« ||
Russian Envoy in Cabul, it is, nevertheless, very I
likely that he will have to bear himsefl (J
the serious consequences of his rash ana ■
| imprudent behaviour. Considering the ex- ll
haustcd condition of the Russian army
and of the Russian Exchequer, I greatly 9
j doubt whether he will be backed in a contest a
with England by his new friends from the ■
! North. Such an eventuality would mean a re- B
j opening of the Eastern Question, and even then ||
i the Ameer would be the worse of it, for whatever'^3
' turn the issue of that gigantic fight would take,
I he would certainly not be the man who would «
; be replaced upon the throne in the Bala IJissar m
; of Cabul.
I must confess that the recent news from fS.
Afghanistan, although I was in part prepared for 11
i such an issue by the disastrous wavering of the
.English^ policy heretofore with regard to ■
Afghanistan, came Upon me so suddcniy"as to bo ■
a surprise ; and I wiil t with your permission, ;
postpone the expression of my views on the pre- 1
spects of England beyond the Suleiman range for
a subsequent letter.—Yours truly,
^ _ T . A. VAMBBRY
Budapest University, Sept. 26.
CABUL F RONTIER TRIBES.
THE WAZIIIIS.
Of the importance at this juncture of the
hill-men on the Afghan frontier, all the latest
news from India agrees to assure us. Such assur
ance, perhaps, was hardly needed, since, from
the first, we have drawn attention to the strange
concurrence of circumstances that has given
these wild tribes so large an influence in the
affairs of their powerful neighbours. That
this influence will be exerted against the
British some have been found to assert, but
these prophets of evil have all the weight of
past experience and the opinions of political
officers on the frontier opposed to them. So
much has been already done with the tribes
that we believe more to be possible. That the
hill-man should occasionally outrage all the
conventionalities of Western ethics is not re-'
markable. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly
a triumph of administration that he should have
been so often and for such long intervals enlisted
on the side of order. Take one powerful fede
ration as an example.
We have only to see the Waziri on his own
hills to understand why the character of the
man must be startling in its incongruities—a
wild tangle of contradictions. And indeed, the
landscape he has looked upon from his birth is
more full of surprises. Rocks so black and'
dreary and uncouth that the native calls them i
" hell stones," overlook valleys such as Cashmere I
itself may not rival.' In the shade of heavy- j
fruited vines that enmesh with their luxuriant :
sprays the wild mulberry that supports them i
the leopard lurks in ambush for the unwary i
traveller. One hour the sunlight is lying'
warm, and clear, and calm upon the painted |
plains and the sombre hills; and in the next I
there sweeps up from the north a dust storm,
filling all the space from hill to hill with a
dense dun murk, darkening the midday air to
gloomiest twilight, and hushing every voice
of nature. Or the sun has set in a glory of
mellow light, and in the still heavy air the
sound of the lowing of the kine comes along the
valley, and the bark of the fox on the distant
hills maybe heard, !when on a sudden the
lightning darts along the peaks, and all the
mountains, as if in conspiracy, roar out together,
echoing the distant thunder, and the placid vale
and the hill sides so lately silent are given up in
a transport of sudden fury to tumult and up
roar. Such is the home of the frontier hill-man
and such the scenes among which he has spent
his life. No wonder that he is picturesque him
self, all strong lights and shadows, bright colours
and threatening gloom. His dress, his gestures,
his speech are all in unison with nature. He
gives names full of strange meanings to all the
objects around him, and his daily life is crowded
with queer, savage circumstances that make him
a most interesting study. Changeful, and sudden
in his changes, he resembles in character the
strange hybrid animal found among his hills, the
" boragga," neither wolf nor dog. In captivity
the creature never loses either nature, for after
licking its master's hand it will snap a finger off
or stop suddenly in its play to worry and kill its
playmate. The hill-man is at one time gloomy
and inhospitable as the mountain chains about
him that refuse to support vegetation and are
unvisited by animal life save the kites and vul
tures that wheel round the peaks. At another he
is smiling and bountiful to profusion, like the
valleys. And how violent is this contrast may
be judged from the two descriptions that follow.
One writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. (Mr. S. Thorbnm), overlooking
the hills, says, " One feels as if in the pre
sence of the half bleached bones of some
enormous carcase, the ranges stretching away like
the close-ribbed back of some huge antediluvian
monster. You can almost count the ribs and
j the joints of the dead thing's spine. The dull
clay colour of the mass, together with the
solemn stillness which reigns around, help to
persuade the spectator that he is in the solitary
presence of death." Another writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. (Sir H.
Edwardes), looking down on the valley, breaks
out into rapturous description. " In spring it is
an emerald, and in winter its many-coloured har
vests look as if Ceres .had stumbled against the
Great Salt Range and spilt half her cornucopia
in this favoured vale. As if to make the land
scape perfect, a graceful variety of the
sheesham tree, whose boughs droop like the
willow, is found here, and here alone, while
along the streams and round the villages the
thick fruit trees, festooned with the wild vine,