Correspondence and Papers on Persia [‎27v] (55/107)

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of the English in Northern Beluchistan during the last thirteen years has
had on that hitherto wild and turbulent country.
The Bolan Pass is now as safe as many a London thoroughfare and
caravans now pass with safety through that portion of the once dreaded and
inaccessible Khyber Pass which has been brought under Biitish influence.
I would ask you to remember that when Southern Afghanistan was in
vaded by a British force in 1878-79, a line of telegraph was erected to Kan
dahar, and through the greater part of the latter year it was guarded from
injury by the Afghans themselves.
What we did then, when we were at war with the ruler of the country,
could, I maintain, be done again, and done more readily and easily when in
the country as friends and allies of the Amir.
The cost of up-keep of slich a line would not be great. There is plenty
of room for it without interfering to any great extent with the Eastern Tele
graph Company’s Red Sea Cables, and 1 am of opinion that if the Indian
Government could w ? ork such a line at the rate of two annas per word to
Herat, it should be possible to come to an agreement with Persia and the
European Powers to carry messages onwards for six annas a word nr less. 4 his
would mean an eight (8) anna or a shilling a word rate at the current
rate of exchange, from India to England. The value of such a line as an
alternative route would be enormous and the gain to the press and the mer
cantile community equally great.
In fact so great would be the advantages and so small the difficulties
of construction and maintenance, that I cannot but think if the case were
properly put before the Chambers of Commerce at Home, the money for the
undertaking would speedily be forthcoming. Among the objections that
have been laised tosucha line are, difficulty of construction and maintenance,
liability to interruption in case of war, and the impossibility of the Afghans
ever tolerating Europeans (who differing from them in religion, are looked
upon as Kafirs or infidels, whom it is meritorious to kill;. The first objection
I think I have already disposed of; of the second I say that if this idea is
to be accepted as a reason for not putting adjacent countries into railway and
telegraphic communication with one another, why then, in order to be con
sistent, fiance and Germany, Germany and Russia, Russia and Turkey,
Italy and France should henceforth sever the lines of railway and telegraph
now connecting them.
I admit that in time of war the railways and telegraphs between bel
ligerent nations are certain to be interrupted but only for a time, and when
once peace has been restored these communications are restored also.
As regards the presence of Europeans in Afghanistan being distasteful to
the inhabitants of the country, I admit it was so once to a prohibitive extent,