AFGHANISTAN. 



tration was nw so n.-irrowod as to deprive 

 the award it" made of all significance. On the 

 4th of May was telegraphed the acceptance 

 br the Knl'li>h Government of the arrange- 

 ment ajnvi-d t< by the Czar, "that in respect 

 to any misunderstanding that may have arisen 

 in the interpretation of the agreement between 

 the two t'abinets, if there shall stiil be found to 

 Mil*!*! doubts and divergences of appreciation, 

 the CAX? haH be referred to the judgment of a 

 unvervipn enjoying the confidence of the two 

 governments." When the arbitration of the 

 Emperor Wilhelm was found to be impracti- 

 cable, the two Cabinets agreed to submit the 

 question to the decision of the King of Den- 

 mark ; but finally the subject was suffered to 

 drop oat of sight 



The British boundary commissioners, who 

 expected war to be declared every instant, 

 found their occupation gone when boundary 

 negotiations were renewed in London, May 4. 

 Sir Peter Lumsden was recalled to London, and 

 the main body of the commission was dis- 

 persed and sent back to India. Col. Ridgway 

 with a small escort, and the surveying officers 

 Colonels Yate and Peacock, remained so as to 

 enable the commission, reduced to the dimen- 

 sions desired by Russia, to begin operations as 

 soon an the main features of the boundary 

 should be settled upon by the two Cabinets. Mr. 

 Gladstone took pains to explain that the recall 

 of (Jen. Lumsden involved no rebuke or dis- 

 pleasure. The general impression was that the 

 commissioner himself was dissatisfied and asked 

 to be relieved. Decorations and promotions 

 were bestowed upon the officers of the expe- 

 dition, partly as an answer to the action of 

 the Kusftian authorities, who, instead of disa- 

 vowing the proceedings of Komaroff and Ali- 

 khanoff, as was demanded by the British Gov- 

 ernment, sent them decorative orders and mes- 

 Mgea of praise. Lord Granville's dispatch of 

 Mar 4, which accepted the Russian compromise 

 and closed the incident, smoothed over the bit- 

 ter charges of bad faith that were bandied back 

 and forth with the avowal that "it has at no 

 time been the desire of her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment to see gallant officers on either side put 

 upon their trial." 



TW I tar bar at Rawil Plndl. One of Lord Duf- 

 erin's stroke* of policy was to arrange a con- 

 hnoet with the Ameer in order to strength- 

 id draw closer the relations between the 

 Afjrhan monarch and the Indian Government 

 by a modification of the existing compact. In 

 tartar with Lord Mayo at Umballa in 1869 



i<re AH asked for a treaty of protection, a 

 Wdr, and a dynastic pledge. Failing 

 to obtain a definite arrangement, he was event- 

 ually drawn into the Russian alliance. Since 

 ihman had received a promise of 

 protection which, on the principle that "the 

 yea and nay of a viceroy is equal to the most 

 formal treaty, was looked upon as binding. 

 lie had also a regular subsidy. The Russian 

 Government expressed dissatisfaction at the 



durbar arranged by Lord Dufferin. In Russia 

 the opinion was held that a new arrangement 

 between Great Britain and the Ameer would 

 abrogate the frontier convention of 1873. 



Abdurrahman Khan met Lord Dufferin at 

 Rawul Pindi in the independent Punjaub, near 

 the Afghan border, on the 31st of March. He 

 was received with great ceremony. The Duke 

 of Connaught was present and called upon the 

 Ameer with the Viceroy so as to impress upon 

 him the fact that he was regarded as an equal 

 and not as a vassal. A parade of 8,000 impe- 

 rial troops and of 3,000 soldiers of the native 

 chiefs gave him a high opinion of the strength 

 and efficiency of the Indian army. A jeweled 

 sword presented him by the Viceroy he de- 

 clared would be used against the enemies of 

 the British Government. The Indian Govern- 

 ment gave him a mountain-battery, a heavy 

 gun, 5,000 Snyder rifles, and other presents, 

 The grand durbar was held April 8. The 

 Ameer in a formal speech announced his will- 

 ingness to render with his army and his peo- 

 ple any services that might be required of him 

 or of the Afghan nation. "As the British 

 Government," he said, " has declared that it 

 will assist me in repelling any foreign enemy, 

 so it is right that Afghanistan should firmly 

 unite and stand side by side with the British 

 Government." 



Among the new arrangements arrived at in 

 the conference was the final agreement of Ab- 

 durrahman to receive an English envoy in Ca- 

 bal. The British representative, Mirza Ataul- 

 lah Khan, proceeded to Cabul in August. The 

 Ameer's request for more arms and money was 

 acceded to, and his annual subsidy was raised. 



Preparations for War. Russia re-enforced her 

 garrisons in Turkomania, and advanced her 

 pickets to Pul-i-Khatnm and Yolatan simul- 

 taneously with the arrival of the British Bound- 

 ary Commission. The presence of Indian troops 

 on the frontier was alleged as the cause of 

 strengthening the Russian position in the Tur- 

 koman country. The advance of Russia to 

 Sarakhs and the Murghab, and the extension 

 of the Transcaspian Railroad to Askabad, gave 

 the first impulse to a concentration of Indian 

 troops on the Afghan border. The English 

 Government was persuaded to authorize the 

 construction of the Sibi-Quetta Railroad, part- 

 ly laid by the Disraeli Government, but torn 

 up in pursuance of the " backward " policy, 

 and its extension to the Pishin valley. Quetta 

 became a busy British residence, the center of 

 a military district, and the headquarters of a 

 division of the Indian army. Under cover of 

 the railroad works troops were massed in the 

 Bo an Pass and the Quetta district, to build 

 and guard the line about the time when the 

 Boundary Commission set out for Herat. The 

 military district of Quetta includes the Bolan 

 and some places east of it, as well as the 

 valley. Before the Zhob valley expe- 

 S 1 ? * rce8 stationed ^ the district were 

 British infantry, three batteries of Brit- 



