AFGHANISTAN. 



tested that the treaty with the Candahar chiefs 

 entered into upon Russian advice was intended 

 to prevent the dangers of Persian annexation, 

 and the mission of Vickovich was, like that of 

 ('apt. Burnes, for purely pacific and com- 

 mercial objects. To appease England and re- 

 store the pood understanding of 1834, Vicko- 

 vich was recalled and the Candahar arrange- 

 ment disavowed. 



It was not until Turkistan was annexed by 

 Russia in 1864 that England again began to 

 regard with suspicion and alarm the advance 

 of the Russian power toward the Indian front- 

 ier. The Earl of Clarendon proposed in 1869 

 that Afghanistan should be recognized as a 

 neutral rone between British and Russian pos- 

 sessions. Prince Gortchakoff approved the 

 idea, and declared that Afghanistan was out- 

 side of the sphere of Russian influence. In 

 1870 the Russian Government refused to aid 

 Abdurrahman Khan, the present Ameer, to 

 wrest the throne of Cabul from Shere Ali. 

 About the same time the English Cabinet was 

 alarmed at rumors of a Russian plan to capture 

 Khiva. Gortchakoff denied that any such in- 

 tention existed, or that hostilities against the 

 Khan were contemplated, except in case that 

 prince should renew his intrigues among the 

 Kirghiz. In 1871 fresh reports of an intended 

 expedition led to additional inquiries. The 

 Russian Government explained that a military 

 reconnaissance had been made for the purpose of 

 frightening the Khan, who was only required to 

 restrain his subjects from preying on Russian 

 commerce and imprisoning subjects of the Czar. 

 Count Shuvaloff was sent in 1872 on a special 

 mission to London to allay the excitement and 

 susceptibility of the English. He said that 

 an expedition was planned for the following 

 spring, to consist of only four and a half battal- 

 ions, with the object of punishing acts of brig- 

 andage and recovering Russian prisoners. The 

 pedition was carried out on -a larger scale 

 than that announced, and resulted in the ac- 

 knowledgment two years after of a Russian 

 protectorate by the Khan of Khiva, and the 

 eejlon to Russia of the right bank of the Oxus, 

 with the exclusive control of that river. 

 The English were disquieted anew by ru- 

 rs of an expedition against the Merv Turko- 

 Tnana, and on the ground that the presence of 

 Ruwians in Merv would be likely to entail 

 >rder disputes and complications with Afghan- 

 istan, which must be preserved as an independ- 

 ent rone, declared that the Indian Government 

 ronld consider its tranquillity imperiled by a 

 mn advance to Merv. For ten years Eng- 

 lispatches repeatedly warned the Russian 

 eminent not to meddle with the Tekke 

 nrkomans, and the Russian Cabinet constantly 

 claimed the intention of going to Merv until 

 ithin six months of its occupation. In 1869 

 nnce Gortchakoff offered no objection to 

 fcnglish officers visiting Cabul, though he 

 ajrreed with Lord Mayo that Russian agents 

 should not Afghanistan was again and again 



declared to be beyond the sphere of Russia's 

 action. There was nevertheless some corre- 

 spondence between the Ameer and the Russian 

 authorities in Turkistan from 1870 till 1878. 

 In the latter year, when England menaced 

 Russia in relation to the San Stefano Treaty, 

 the Czar's Government responded by sending 

 Gen. Stoletoff to Cabul to negotiate an alli- 

 ance against England. The result was the Af- 

 ghan war of 1878-79, in which Russia gave 

 no aid to the Afghans, having no further quar 

 rel with England, and the establishment in 1880 

 of Abdurrahman on the throne as the nominee 

 and paid ally of the British Government. 



When, with the aid of British gifts of money 

 and arms, Abdurrahman had established his 

 authority at Candahar and Herat, and overcome 

 his rival, Ayub Khan, the British Government 

 agreed, in the summer of 1883, to pay him a 

 fixed annual subsidy of twelve lacs of rupees out 

 of the Indian revenues. Shere Ali and his pre 

 decessors had received only irregular and tem- 

 porary subsidies. The English Government, 

 furthermore, changed its traditional policy by 

 giving a pledge to the Ameer, though still re- 

 fraining from a formal treaty, promising that 

 "if any foreign power should attempt to inter- 

 fere in Afghanistan, and if such interference 

 should lead to unprovoked aggression on the 

 dominions of your Highness, in that event the 

 British Government would be prepared to aid 

 you, to such extent and in such manner as may 

 appear to the British Government necessary, 

 in repelling it, provided your Highness follows 

 unreservedly the advice of the British Govern- 

 ment in regard to your external relations." 



The Boundary of Afghanistan. In the pourpar- 

 lers of 1872 and 1873 the Russian Government 

 accepted a line that would be regarded as the 

 boundary of Afghanistan and the extreme limit 

 of "the sphere within which Russia may be 

 called upon to exercise her influence." Along 

 the border of Bokhara, where Russian influ- 

 ence was already established, and where an 

 advance from Tashkend in the direction of 

 Balkh and Cabul was apprehended, a definite 

 geographical frontier was recognized in the 

 river Oxus, from its confluence with the Kok- 

 cha, down to Khoja Saleh, where it leaves the 

 Afghan border and enters the steppe. This 

 riverain boundary is not accepted by the peo- 

 ple of the country in the upper course of the 

 Oxus where the Galchasand Uzbecksare settled 

 on the river-banks and the northern slopes of 

 theHindoo-Koosh. The large state of Karategrin 

 lies entirely on the north side of the river, and 

 Badakshan on the south side, but the smaller 

 states of Wakhan, Roshan, and Shugnan, over 

 which the Ameer of Cabul exercises a preca- 

 rious and intermittent dominion, spread over 

 both banks, as does also Darwaz, which owes 

 fealty to the Ameer of Bokhara. All these 

 peoples have been accustomed to appeal to the 

 Bokharan potentate as the protector of their 

 race against the greed and tyranny of the Af- 

 ghans. Farther down the banks' of the river 



