568 Hon. G. N. Curzon [May 10 > 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, May 10, 1895. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S. Treasurer and 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Hon. G. N. Curzon, M.P. 



A Becent Journey in Afghanistan. 



Direct British interest in Afghanistan dates only from the com- 

 mencement of the present century, when in consequence of the 

 expanding ambitions of the heirs of the Durani sovereignty, esta- 

 blished by Ahmed Shah Abdali in the middle of the last century, 

 the rulers of India found it requisite to enter into political relations 

 with the Amirs of Afghanistan. Since then we have twice fought 

 serious campaigns in that country, which have been in each case 

 clouded with almost irreparable calamity before they terminated in a 

 triumphant vindication of British arms. In the intervals between 

 these two campaigns, and still more since the last, we have entered 

 into diplomatic and treaty relations with the rulers of that country, 

 which relations have now happily terminated in a position where 

 the sovereign of Afghanistan, though subsidised by us, is yet an 

 independent monarch, than whom there is not in Asia any more 

 loyal or convinced ally of the British Crown. 



His country is one whose external characteristics do not differ 

 greatly from those of Persia, from which it is divided by no physical 

 separation. A succession of valleys or plains, in which irrigation from 

 streams or underground wells produces a verdure that is as startling 

 in spring and summer as are the corresponding sterility and dearth 

 of colour in the late autumn and winter, are severed from each 

 other by mountain ranges, the normal features of which are brown 

 and unattractive, but which in parts of the Suleiman range on the 

 eastern frontier, and still more, of course, in the main range of the 

 Hindu Kush, which runs from east to west through the centre of 

 Afghanistan like a great vertebral cord, rise to lofty altitudes, 

 scaled with difficulty in summer, and in winter blocked by impass- 

 able snows. Cultivation throughout the country is dependent on 

 water, naturally or artificially brought. The inhabitants are in no 

 sense of the term a nation. They have neither common blood, 

 common traditions, common feelings, nor common history. Modern 

 Afghanistan is indeed a purely accidental geographical unit, which 

 has been carved out of the heart of Central Asia by the swords of 

 conquerors or the genius of individual statesmen. The bulk of the 

 people commonly called Afghan belong to the Pathan stock, which is 



