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Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎71v] (146/312)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (150 folios). It was created in 07 Sep 1878-19 Oct 1878. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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throws a fragrant shade, beneath which the well-
fed Syuds look exquisitely happy, sleeping mid
way through their beads. Roses, too, abound,
i Most of the fruits of Cabul are found wild, and
culture would bring them to perfection ; as it is
the limes, mulberries, and melons are delicious.
Altogether Nature has so smiled here that the ,
stranger thinks it a paradise ; and, when he
turns to the people, wonders how such spirits of
evil ever found admittance." That compared
with the valleys the hill-men should seem
| " spirits" of evil altogether is not, after such a
description, to be wondered at. Would any
human race seem in keeping with Paradise ? A
pious Bishop has told us how, amid other beauti
ful scenes of nature, only man was "vile," and it
may well be that the wild Waziri does not match
at all times with his valleys,
j But how about the same Waziri on the hills,
i the " hell, stones?" There he has the advan-
■ tage of the landscape, and the shapely figure
in its graceful apparel puts to shame its sur
roundings of skeleton rock and rib ravines.
Nor, descending from the heights, does he as
a fact bring down to the pleasant valley
levels only the highland savagery, for in his own
village, cosily nestled in a fruit orchard, with a
i stream tumbling through the midst, and, corn
I growing down to the water's edge, he imbibes
; something of the lowland placidity. The pro-
; verbs current amojng them inculcate a morality
as stern almost as that of Buddha, and in
: many points not radically differing from
Ithe ethics of Western civilisation. "Bear
j witness for God's sake; use a stick for a
j friend's," is a fine English sentiment; and
" God remains though friends go," is eminently
orthodox. " Honesty is the best policy," and
" Tell the truth and shame the devil," have
the exact equivalents among these people. The
love of home and its quiet pleasures, the wis-
j dom of deliberation in council and of prompti-
! tude in action, the transient nature of joy, the
value of knowledge, the disgrace of idleness, of
, cowardice and ignorance, the pleasures of
labour, the dignity of liberality, the reverence
due to old age, are all insisted upon in the folk
lore of the hill-men, and it is difficult to under
stand that the people should be utterly
bad where nearly all our own virtues ' are
held meritorious and nearly all our vices depre-
j cated. Nor do those who know them best deny
I to the Waziri and Afridi every good trait. In-
l deed, there are some—and political officers upon
the very frontier we are speaking of among the
number—who stoutly defend the hill-men from
the charges brought against them by - those
who judge only by the acts of violence and
treachery that become public. In private life
the frontier mountaineer is no worse than bis
neighbours of the Indian plains, and he is a
degree better than the Afghans upon the other
side. The wild creature is too proud to
ask alms, considering beggary as a dis
graceful state of life, and yet a beg
gar seldom leaves his door empty-handed.
; They form friendships slowly, but when formed
j they are sincere in them—" be either friendly or
angry outright" is a common saying—and how-
] over they may act they enjoin on their children
; and each other the virtues of honesty in thought
and aim. In attachment to their native place
no people in the world exceeds them, and it is
j very seldom that a hill-man can be tempted from
I his home. Sympathy in sorrow with each other
is very marked, and in the community of their
pleasures they resemble all other Oriental races.
In their field work, when, that is, the bounty of
nature leaves them any labour to do, the hill-men
are helpful to each other among those of their near
kin, and it is a matter of common notoriety how
readily they show their good-will and instinctive \
hospitality to strangers, even to Europeans. Some
classes of hill-men, whenever they meet a way
farer, pull out their bannock from their
wallet, and breaking off a piece offer it for ac-
centance, with a friendly erin, and this not ac
cording to the circumstances of the giver or the
| recipient, but habitually and as an expression of i
practical good feeling. Moreover, every village
that can afford it contains, so writes a settlement
officer on the frontier, " a guest house, in which
any traveller is welcome for a night to board
and lodging, the cost being defrayed either by
j the head men or by the community jointly."
| To their elders they show an unvarying courtesy, ,
| and among their proverbs is one, "If an old j
' man be sitting by and a young one begin talk- 1
ing, turn him out like a dogand another in
its tender poetry has no equivalent with us :
" God himself feels reticent before a white
beard."
Such are some of the sentiments that profes
sedly guide the hill-man's life. It is true that
they are not in practice so prominent as in theory,
but can it be said of all other nations that they
" do as they preach ? " From the mere fact of
the existence of these lofty maxims little," of
■course, can be inferred as to actual morale, but |
from the practical ethics of everyday life mate- i
rial evidence may be gathered. We have seen |
that they possess, in common with more civilised i
races, many of Ihe better traits of character, and
in the history of our political relations with them
it has been proved that the hill-men are both
amenable to discipline and grateful for justice.
Our policy along the frontier has been one of
conciliation and of a lofty tenderness for the
vagaries of the half-savage men we have
1 had to deal with. For no reason that
1 they can allege afterwards in cold blood, they
| will break away from all the ties they fjsect
j to honour, and commit some gross outrage
j either upon a neighbouring tribe oc on!
! British subjects. The deed committed, they
! hurry back into the dim solitudes of the j
[mountain defiles. But ivhen next they steal
' out in the hope of getting provisions from the
| neighbouring market, they find red-coated sen
tinels at every outlet from their hiding place,
' and, with the prospect of starvation before
them, they come humbly to the authorities and
ask pardon. A nominal fine and hostages for a
time are exacted, and for a while all goes well ;
again. But at intervals the fit of turbulence
comes on again, and each time is met by the
same firm procedure, the same eventual for-
^ giveness. In the case of those tribes with
whom we have been longest in contact, the in
variable'justice of our administration has, with-
i out a doubt—if the opinions of those most com-
' petent to judge and the evidence of facts may
be accepted—come to be appreciated by the poor,
lawless, superstitious people of the hills.
| Thus, taking one district alone—that of
Bannu, which, in the scheme of operations
now unfolding, will play a prominent part in
future events on the frontier—we find how |
each administrator in succession has left the:
memory of rigid justice behind him, and I
how that memory still exercises influence |
upon the sons bf the men they ruled. First, 1
Edwardes, quick in determination and quick
to be obeyed, startled the independent people
into obedience, snatching as it were their
signatures to bonds for good behaviour, and
surprising them into concessions to law and order.
Then Taylor, of whom it suffices to say that
when the Sikh war, which had called him from
the district, was over and he returned, the people
rejoiced at his return. And then came Nichol-
son. Of this wonderful man every village along
the frontier cherishes a tradition, and is jealous
of its reputation as the scene of this or that ex
ploit. And, indeed, if half the stories that are |
told are true, John Nicholson was certainly the |
demigod that local superstition now believes I
him to have been. But his ascendency was j
gained by exceptional means. When a hill- j
tribe raided on the country under his charge, he
rode straight off on his white mare into the centre i
of disaffection ; the hill-men, hurrying home |
with their plunder, found to their horror the;
avenger waiting for them at their own door, i
When a notorious outlaw was disturbing the
border and no reward could purchase his head,
Nicholson had his horse brought round, and,
riding straight to the man's village, cut him
down in front of his house, and brought
back the head at his saddle-bow, and
' set it ns on his desk .an bis court-house as a
terror to evil- doers and a taunt to those who had
let the ruffian live so long. There was hardly,
if native tradition may be believed, a bad cha
racter in his district that he* t.a,d not whipped
with his own hand ; but so unerring was his jus
tice that he is remembered to this day as a friend
and a father. Up and down the frontier the stroll
ing bard takes as his theme to-day Nicholson's
brave deeds and manly generosity; and it is not
only Europeans, but the wild hiil-men also,
whom he ruled so strongly tnd so well,
who applaud the justice of the epitaph upon
his memorial tablet: " The enemies of his
country know how terrible he was in battle,
and his friends love to recall how gentle and
generous and true he was." His successors, one
notably who is still living, have gained the
respect of " the excitable impulsive savage,"
the border mountaineer has been called ; and in
the fact that men differing so widely in eha-
j racter should each in turn have acquired influ-
j ence over the hill-men, speaks eloquently for the
i wild races thev had to deal with. Tact,

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Content

Press cuttings from British and Indian Newspapers regarding the Afghan War (today known as the 2nd Afghan-Anglo War), negotiations in Cabul [Kabul], the British Government's policy with regards to the Indian Frontier, and the movements of the Russians during the war.

The cuttings have been taken from a number of newspapers including the Pall Mall Budget , The Pall Mall Gazette , The Globe , The Times , The Pioneer Mail , The Standard , The Daily News , The Daily Telegraph , The Evening Standard , The Saturday Review , The Spectator , The Morning Post and The World .

Extent and format
1 volume (150 folios)
Arrangement

The cuttings have been arranged in the scrapbook in chronological order and the pages of the book have been tied into three bundles ff 1-46, ff 47-96 and ff 97-142

Physical characteristics

Foliation: This file has been foliated in the top right hand front corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio with a pencil number enclosed in a circle.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎71v] (146/312), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F126/24, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024093679.0x000093> [accessed 2 January 2025]

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