AFGHANISTAN. 



in tin- Kiirram valley, east of the Kurram pass. 

 lie instructed the Afghan Governor of Khost to 

 regain possession (if the place by force when the 

 British commander refused to heed his remon- 

 strance. To avoid a collision the Indian Gov- 

 ernment, in .March, ordered the troops to be with- 

 drawn from Miland-Khel to the othersideof the 

 Kurram river, after obtaining an agreement from 

 the Ameer to leave the boundary question open 

 for future settlement. With a view to the res- 

 toration of an amicable understanding and tin- 

 sett lenient of thisuuestion and the trouble among 

 t he t ribes on the Indian frontier, Abdurrahman 

 was invited to a conference with Lord Roberts 

 at Jellalabad. The Ameer declined to meet Lord 

 Roberts to confer upon questions touching his 

 relations with his subjects, which he claimed the 

 right to deal with according to the sacred laws 

 of the Afghans without outside interference. He 

 declared that he had armed the Afghans to meet 

 an attack from either England or Russia, while 

 willing to co-operate with England in a satis- 

 factory plan for defending the northwestern 

 frontier against the latter. Europeans who were 

 in the Ameer's employment at Cabul were dis- 

 missed, or found it advisable to resign and leave 

 the country on account of the threatening actions 

 of the Ghazis. 



The Pamirs. The Pamir region is a remark- 

 able plateau in the heart of Asia, where great 

 mountain ranges come together. Its length from 

 north to south is about 250 miles, and its breadth 

 120 miles. Winter lasts eight months, but during 

 summer the Kirghis find rich pasture for their 

 fine cattle and strong mountain horses. The sov- 

 ereign rights over this country have been claimed 

 by the Emir of Khokand, by the Afghan Ameer, 

 and by the Chinese of Kashgar. Instigated by 

 the British, the Ameer deposed the Khan of Ba- 

 dakshan and attempted the subjugation of the 

 khanates of Shignan and Wakhan. The Chi- 

 nese, with the approval of the British, advanced 

 up the slopes from Kashgar and established gar- 

 risons in the eastern Pamirs, while the British 

 themselves, on the southern border of the Pamirs, 

 seized Hunza and Yasin and posted garrisons in 

 those places. As successors to the rights of the 

 Emir of Khokand the Russians claimed the entire 

 region, which was now partitioned between the 

 Afghans and the Chinese, with the exception of 

 a narrow strip in the middle. An Anglo-Russian 

 agreement made the Oxus the limit of the Rus- 

 sian sphere up to its fountainhead. The English 

 held that the Murghab, in the north of the Pamirs, 

 was intended, but the Russians contended that 

 the Panjah branch, which runs close to the new 

 British frontier, must be considered the true 

 source of the Oxus. 



In April, 1892, the Afghan forces attacked a 

 Chinese garrison stationed at Somatash, a small 

 town in the western part of the Pamir region. 

 The Chinese were driven out, and their authori- 

 ties remonstrated with the British Government, 

 which had previously upheld the Afghan claim 

 t<> sovereign rights over the greater part of the 

 Pamirs, but was now disposed to admit the 

 Chinese claim to all the territory from Somatash 

 eastward. While negotiations were proceeding 

 on this basis the Russians sent 1,200 infantry, 

 cavalry, and artillery, under Col. Yonoff, to ex- 

 pel both the Afghans and the Chinese and take 



possession of the whole region. The Chinese 

 forts in the eastern Pamirs were evacuated on 

 the appearance of this superior force, but pren- 

 aratinns were made in China to re-enforce the 

 garrison in Kashgar and strike a blow for the 

 possession of the disputed territory. This de- 

 sign was not carried out because a diplomatic ar- 

 rangement promised more satisfactory results to 

 the Pekin authorities, who had no real interests 

 here except to safeguard Kashgar. When the 

 Russians reached Somatash the Afghan advance 

 guard fired upon them, and the fort was not 

 taken without a fight, in which all the Afghans 

 were killed or made prisoners. After this tin- 

 Russians held undisputed possession of the Pa- 

 mir region, and a part of the troops went into 

 winter quarters there. During the winter 300 

 Russian troops were kept in the Pamirs, and in 

 April, 1893, two battalions of infantry and two 

 batteries of artillery were dispatched from the 

 northwest to increase the army of occupation. 

 The British Government entered into direct dip- 

 lomatic negotiations with Russia for a delimita- 

 tion of the respective spheres of interest in this 

 region, based on ethnographical considerations 

 and the previous political relations of the inhabit- 

 ants. 1 hese negotiations were necessarily slow, 

 and the Russian Government gave the assurance 

 that no further active operations should be 

 undertaken and no new expedition or re-enforce- 

 ments sent to the Pamir during 1893. The Rus- 

 sians were reported, however, to have already 

 required the Afghans in Wakhan to surrender 

 Kala Panja. This position commands the passes 

 leading to Chitral, while the possession of the 

 Little Pamir gives access to Kanjut through the 

 Wakhijrui pass. In June, 1893, 500 Russian in- 

 fantry, two sotnias of Cossacks, and mountain 

 artillery left Marghilan for the Pamir region. 

 These re-enforcements, it was said, were to re- 

 main in the Alai valley, except those that were 

 necessary to relieve the guards stationed in the 

 Pamirs. The Chinese Government was not con- 

 tent to leave to diplomacy alone the care of its 

 interests in the part of the Pamirs that com- 

 mands Kashgar. Three military outposts west 

 of Kashgar were held by Manchu and Mongol 

 troops, an experienced general was placed in 

 command at Kashgar, and large reserves were 

 kept at Kulja and Tarbayatai, while a strong 

 garrison of the best Manchu troops, with Krupp 

 and machine guns, was sent from Chihli to Shensi. 

 The Pekin Government was not interested di- 

 rectly in the portions of the Pamirs leading to 

 Afghanistan or Cashmere, but was determined 

 to maintain its claim to the region lying be- 

 tween the Transalai and Alichur mountains. 

 The Chinese minister to Russia was instructed 

 by the Tsungli-Yamen to concede nothing in the 

 neighborhood of the Kara-kul lake, and to insist 

 on sovereign rights over all the territory east- 

 ward of a line drawn from the southern extrem- 

 ity of the lake for 60 miles southward, and in- 

 cluding all the country inclosed in the spur of 

 the Tian-Shan range, which runs southward 

 from the Ekizeh pass, and is known as the Kar- 

 tag mountains. This district is inhabited by the 

 Prute tribe of the Kirghis, who have never be- 

 come reconciled to Chinese dominion, but would 

 be likely to co-operate with the Chinese against 

 the Russians. 



