6

Summary

ment to the English Foreign Office that the Imperial Historical Cabinet continues to consider Afghanistan as entirely beyond its sphere of action.'

Again the Amir was informed by the Viceroy that the British Government in nowise shared or approved his dissatisfaction at the increasing frequency and significance of these unsolicited communications. His Highness consequently ceased to consult the British Government about them, and in the winter of 1873 the acting Governor-General of Russian Turkestan appears to have considered himself in a position to address Sher Ali as a subordinate ally of the Russian Government. I entertain the hope,' he wrote, 'that the high Governor-General will not refuse your request, and that he will represent to H.M. the Emperor your endeavour to become worthy of the grace of my august Master.'

At the close of that year the Amir's disregarded apprehensions had been justified by the Russian conquest of Khiva. From the Governor-General of British India, to whom he had so recently confided those apprehensions, he received no communication whatever on that rapid realisation of them which closely concerned his interests and deeply affected his feelings. But from the Governor-General of Russian Turkestan he received a long communication, frankly recognising in the fall of Khiva an event which His Highness could not reasonably be expected to regard with indifference. Sher Ali did not consult the Viceroy about his reply to General Kaufmann. And this was only natural; for he must have clearly gathered, first from the language, and then from the silence of the Viceroy, that on this matter the views and feelings of the British Government were altogether different from his own. But it was immediately after

Historical
Summary

Sher Ali's receipt of General Kaufmann's communication about Khiva that the first significant change occurred in the tone of his own communications with the Viceroy. Till then no Amir of Kabul had ever ventured to address the Viceroy of India in letters not written in the Amir's own name and bearing the Amir's own signature. Disregarding this established etiquette, Sher Ali now, for the first time, addressed the Viceroy indirectly, through one of the Afghan Ministers, in a form for which there was absolutely no precedent. While Sher Ali was thus beginning to display his estrangement from the Government of India, these are the terms in which he was addressed by the Government of Russian Turkestan in the spring of 1873:

'I hope,' writes the Russian authority at Tashkend, 'that after your death Sirdar Abdullah Jan will follow your example and make himself an ally and friend of the Emperor'-the ally and friend, that is, of a Power pledged to treat Afghanistan as a State entirely beyond the sphere of its influence! This letter was quickly followed by another from General Kaufmann himself on the same subject. I hope,' writes the Russian Governor-General, that the chain of friendship now existing between Russia and Afghanistan will in future increase and become firm, owing to the recent alliance between the Emperor of Russia and the Queen of England;' and he adds: 'I doubt not that this alliance of the two Powers will be an omen for those countries which are under the protection of the Emperor of Russia and the Queen of England.'

While appreciating the skill with which a matrimonial alliance between two reigning houses is here represented as a political alliance between two

Summary

empires, and the significant anxiety of the writer to Historical convey assurances which would have come more naturally from the Viceroy of India, European readers might not be disposed to attach to the phraseology of this letter any special importance. But Asiatics are accustomed to weigh such utterances with scrupulous attention; and its native agent at Kabul reported to the Government of India that on the receipt of this letter the Kabul Durbar observed: "The Russian Government has now made itself partner in the protection of Afghanistan.'

An event now occurred which Lord Lytton considered to be the turning-point in our relations with Afghanistan. In the year 1873 Sher Ali reviewed his position. There was much in it which, rightly or wrongly, had caused him increasing anxiety; and finding in recent occurrences significant indications of future contingencies, he appears to have then wisely realised the inevitable necessity of accepting closer and more subordinate relations with one or other of his two great European neighbours. To us his preference was given. And in 1873 the Amir made a last effort to obtain from the British Government more definite and practical protection from the unsolicited patronage of Russia.

The Envoy sent by the Amir of Kabul to confer with the Viceroy of India at Simla in 1873 said to Lord Northbrook: Whatever specific assurances the Russians may give, and however often these may be repeated, the people of Afghanistan can place no confidence in them, and will never rest satisfied unless they are assured of the aid of the British Government.'

The Viceroy telegraphed home, and proposed to assure him that the Government would help the Amir

Historical
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with money, arms, and troops, if necessary, to repel an unprovoked invasion, if he unreservedly accepted our advice in foreign affairs. But the Duke of Argyll entirely declined to sanction any such undertaking; and the Viceroy could only promise the Envoy to assist him in any circumstances with advice, assure him that a Russian invasion of Afghanistan was not apprehended, and offer to supply him with a certain quantity of arms. But the possibility of direct invasion was by no means the only danger anticipated by the Afghan Envoy, although the point on which he desired to be satisfied was whether he might count on the English to defend him against actual aggression. He said also, and he said it very distinctly, that the Amir contemplated with serious anxiety the inevitable result of those unceasing and increasing endeavours which, in the circumstances explained by the Envoy, the Russian authorities at Tashkend, if not checked by our intervention, were certain to make for the acquisition and exercise of some influence in his kingdom. To these representations no direct reply was given; but the Amir was told that the Government of India thought it highly desirable that a British officer should be deputed to examine the northern boundaries of Afghanistan, and to communicate with His Highness at Kabul regarding the measures necessary for the frontier's security. The Amir's reply, which plainly, though in reserved language, indicated disappointment at the failure of his negotiations for a defensive alliance against Russia, merely stated that there were general objections to European travellers in his country.

To those who look back, after the lapse of twenty-five years, upon these transactions there can be no doubt that the refusal of the British Ministry

Summary

to entertain Sher Ali's request for an assurance of Historical protection was fraught with very serious consequences, and that the departure of the Afghan Envoy was followed, in effect, by the rupture of friendly relations at Kabul.

In 1873 Sher Ali had the sense to perceive in time that Afghanistan could not permanently stand alone, and that sooner or later she must openly and practically throw in her lot with that Power which might prove, not only best able, but also most willing, to befriend and assist her. Recent events, to which the British Government appeared indifferent, had convinced him that the time was at hand when her final choice must be made; and he was disposed to give his alliance to the highest bidder for it. Russia was apparently the most willing, and she was obviously the best able, to make the highest bid. When Sher Ali found the British Government so undisguisedly afraid of increasing its liabilities on his behalf, and so apparently disinclined to contract with him any closer or more responsible relations, it is not surprising that he should have accepted Russia's repeated assurance of her constant desire to consolidate and tighten what General Kaufmann correctly called the chain of her friendship with him—that chain which, to use the Amir's own expression, eventually dragged not only Afghanistan, but India also, into a sea of troubles.'

At all events, after the return to Kabul of Sher Ali's Envoy in 1873 there was a marked change for the worse in the Amir's attitude towards the Government of India, and less than two years later there was a very important change in the character of his relations with the Government of Russian Turkestan. In the second week of September 1875 a native