Government of Her Majesty would not be entitled to except, as incompatible with the assurances spontaneously offered to it by the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. You will bear in mind these facts when framing instructions for your Mission to Cabul. To demands which you have no intention of conceding your Agent will oppose a frank and firm refusal. You will instruct him to prevent such demands from becoming subjects of discussion. Others, which under certain conditions, you may be willing to entertain, he will undertake to refer to your Government, with such favourable assurances as induce the Ameer to recognise the advantage of facilitating, by compliance with your wishes, the fulfilment of his

may

own.

11. If the language and demeanour of the Ameer be such as to promise no satisfactory result of the negotiations thus opened, his Highness should be distinctly reminded that he is isolating himself, at his own peril, from the friendship and protection it is his interest to seek and deserve.

12. The requests which may be made by Shere Ali in connection with his reception of permanent British Agents in Afghanistan will probably raise the question of granting to his Highness

1st. A fixed and augmented subsidy.

2nd. A more decided recognition than has yet been accorded by the Government of India to the order of succession established by him in favour of his younger son, Abdoollah Jan.

3rd. An explicit pledge, by treaty or otherwise, of material support in case of foreign aggression.

13. The first of these questions is of secondary magnitude. You will probably deem it inexpedient to commit your Government to any permanent pecuniary obligation on behalf of a neighbour whose conduct and character have hitherto proved uncertain. On the other hand, you may possibly find it worth while to increase from time to time the amount of pecuniary assistance which up to the present moment the Ameer has been receiving. But your decision on this point can only be determined by circumstances which have not arisen, and considerations which must be left to your appreciation of such circumstances.

14. With regard to the recognition of Abdoollah Jan, whose selection as legitimate successor to the throne of his father has been made with much solemnity by Shere Ali, and ostensibly

acquiesced in by the most influential of the Afghan chiefs, Her Majesty's Government in considering this question have before them the solemn and deliberate declaration made in 1869 by Lord Northbrook's predecessor to the present Ameer, viz., that 'the British Government does not desire to interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, yet considering that the bonds of friendship between that Government and your Highness have been lately more closely drawn than heretofore, it will view with severe displeasure any attempts on the part of your rivals to disturb your position as Ruler of Cabul, and rekindle civil war; and it will further endeavour from time to time, by such means as circumstances may require, to strengthen the Government of your Highness to enable you to exercise with equity and with justice your rightful rule, and to transmit to your descendants all the dignities and honours of which you are the lawful possessor.'

15. The Government of India having in 1869 made that declaration, which was approved by Her Majesty's advisers, have not based upon it any positive measures; while to the Ameer, who had received that declaration under circumstances of some solemnity and parade, it appears to have conveyed a pledge of definite action in his favour. It is not surprising that these conflicting interpretations of an ambiguous formula should have occasioned mutual disappointment to his Highness and the Government of India.

16. Her Majesty's Government do not desire to renounce their traditional policy of abstention from all unnecessary interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. But the frank recognition of a de facto order in the succession established by a de facto Government to the throne of a foreign State does not, in their opinion, imply or necessitate any intervention in the internal affairs of that State.

17. You may also find it in your power to bring about a reconciliation between the Ameer and his nephew, Abdul Rahman Khan, who is now a refugee at Samarcand, under Russian protection. The order of succession established by Shere Ali would derive increased solidity from the support of this powerful malcontent, whose adhesion to it might perhaps be secured through the friendly assistance of your Govern

ment.

18. Any of these arrangements might strengthen the position of the Government of India in Afghanistan, by securing its influence over the present Ruler of that country, and exhaust

ance with any reasonable demand on the part of Shere Ali for more assured support and protection, such as pecuniary assistance, the advice of British officers in the improvement of his military organisation, or a promise, not vague, but strictly guarded and clearly circumscribed, of adequate aid against actual and unprovoked attack by any foreign Power. Such a promise personally given to the Ameer will probably satisfy his Highness, if the terms of it be unequivocal. But Her Majesty's Government do not wish to fetter your discretion in considering the advantages of a treaty on the basis above indicated.

28. The conduct of Shere Ali has more than once been characterised by so significant a disregard of the wishes and interests of the Government of India, that the irretrievable alienation of his confidence in the sincerity and power of that Government is a contingency which cannot be dismissed as impossible. Should such a fear be confirmed by the result of the proposed negotiation, no time must be lost in reconsidering, from a new point of view, the policy to be pursued in reference to Afghanistan.

29. On the other hand, the success of those efforts (which, if they be made at all, cannot be safely delayed) will be pregnant with results so advantageous to the British power in India, that Her Majesty's Government willingly leave to the exercise of your judgment every reasonable freedom in carrying out the present instructions.

I have, &c., (Signed)

SALISBURY.

The only thing quite clear from these instructions is that a temporary Mission was to be sent to Shere Ali (par. 3), to insist upon his reception of European Residents (par. 25), under threats (par. 11), which would be taken, certainly by a Ruler of his class, and probably by any other Ruler, to mean war. All the rest is very difficult to reconcile with itself or with any definite idea of policy. The two great objects of our policy are put forward in par. 9. One is to secure Afghanistan against aggression; whereas the whole gist of the instructions. is that we are to insist on having something more than we have got, something which by treaty we have agreed not to have, and that, if it is not yielded to us, we will

certainly break off all treaties, probably go to war with the Ameer; and all this without any wrong so much as alleged to be done by the Ameer, but because we are jealous of the Russians. The second object is to give such support to the Ameer as may prevent conflicts between rival candidates for power, and yet this is to be done 'without interfering in the internal affairs of the country.'

6

The 'primary purpose' of the Mission is to invite the confidence of the Ameer' (par. 6); and this is to be done, first by proposing a course which, as all the Indian officers consulted had told Lord Salisbury, was certain to excite his suspicions and fears, and then, if he objects, by threatening him with danger.

The assurances given to Shere Ali by Lord Northbrook at the Simla conference are said (par. 22) to be 'too ambiguous to secure confidence or inspire gratitude.' Therefore (par. 24) Lord Lytton is instructed to give any more definite declaration which will remove the Ameer's doubts; but with this proviso, that the new declaration is not to differ from the old ones in substance, because it is to express an 'unaltered policy,' nor in detail, because it is to embody the very conditions which are said to have made the old assurances ambiguous, viz., the conditions that Her Majesty's Government' must reserve to themselves entire freedom of judgment as to the character of circumstances involving the obligation of material support to the Ameer, and it must be distinctly understood that only in some clear case of unprovoked aggression would such an obligation arise.'

It is not surprising that the only portion of such a policy which was found capable of execution, was that fatally simple portion which is shadowed forth in pars. 11 and 27 of the instructions.

At the time when the aggressions of the Russians were being made the justification (par. 7 of the instructions) for our violent alteration of the relations between ourselves and the Afghans, Mr. Disraeli held the following language in the House of Commons. On May 5, 1876, he said—

Russia knows full well there is no reason why we should view the natural development of her empire in Asia with jealousy, so long as it is clearly made aware by the Government of this country that we are resolved to maintain and strengthen both materially and morally our Indian Empire, and not merely do that, but also uphold our legitimate influence in the East. Russia, so far as I have had any influence in the conduct of our affairs, has been made perfectly aware of these views, and not only that, but they have thought them consistent with a good understanding between the two countries. I believe, indeed, that at no time has there been a better understanding between the Courts of St. James and St. Petersburg than at the present moment, and there is this good understanding because our policy is a clear and a frank policy.1

After February 1876, there is a great gap in the correspondence between England and India. Important events took place during 1876 and in the early part of 1877; but until May 10, 1877, a period of more than fourteen months, there is no despatch from the Government of India on Afghan affairs. We believe such a thing to be quite unprecedented. That there were frequent communications between the Viceroy and the Secretary of State cannot be doubted, and the omission of official reports indicates a system of government which is not in accordance with the spirit, if it is with the letter, of the law, and which we hope may before long be made the subject of some inquiry.

One curious result of the omission to report until so late a period is that the Government of India then say that Lord Salisbury's instructions of February 1876, removed the chief ground of the objections made to his former despatches. Of course this is true of the members of the Government of India at the date of May 10, 1877. But it is certainly not true of those who were members in the year 1876, for three of them 2 retained their objections, and made fresh objections to the details

1 See inf. p. 240 as to the feeling between the English and Russian Governments at this time.

2 Sir Henry W. Norman, Sir Wm. Muir, and Sir A. Hobhouse.