AFGHANISTAN. 



Cabool, with great regularity, and had en- 

 joyed great security under the protection of 

 the mountain tribes. It was furthermore de- 

 finitely settled that the treaty of 1873, accord- 

 ing to which the Amir was to receive 20,000 

 breech-loaders and a sum of about $500,000 as 

 a present for the concessions made by him with 

 regard to the border of Seistan toward Persia, 

 could not be executed. He actually received 

 the arms and one-half the money, but, upon be- 

 ing asked to determine the time and place when 

 he would wish to receive the other half, he an- 

 swered, that he did not care for the money, 

 he would make a present of it to England, the 



THE CITADEL, HERAT. 



amount was too small. This conduct appears 

 all the more insolent, when we are told that the 

 state treasury was entirely empty, and the great- 

 est extortions were made use of in order to ob- 

 tain money. Thus all the high dignitaries of the 

 capital were recently taxed large sums because 

 they were said to have defrauded the public 

 treasury. In order to avoid a criminal prosecu- 

 tion, they all paid the sums of money demand- 

 ed of them, but they all sought to retrieve their 

 losses from the people; and, as the officials 

 have full power to plunder their subordinates, 

 such acts tend to increase the existing dissatis- 

 faction." Heir von Schlagintweit then goes on 

 to say that in India it is generally assumed that 

 this line of conduct at Cabool is brought about 

 by the negotiations of the Amir for Russian 

 friendship. It is now known that a Russian 

 agent was in Cabool quite recently, is still 

 there, and made some definite propositions, 

 but did not have an official character. Indian 

 papers stated that the Russian Government 

 had offered about $3,000,000 for the privilege 

 of "placing a Russian force in cantonments 

 on Afghan territory, somewhere near the 

 border. This offer was read in a grand dur- 

 bar in Cabool on July 15th. All the mem- 



bers expressed themselves to the effect that 

 the Russians are great in promising, but that 

 they were not known to keep their promises. 

 One of the Sirdars even remarked : " These 

 golden but treacherous promises have brought 

 us unfriendly relations with the British Gov- 

 ernment for India, and I cannot but wonder 

 that the Amir is delighted with these proposi- 

 tions, and seriously believes in the fulfillment 

 of the promises." To this the Amir replied: 

 " I am convinced that I may be deceived by 

 the Russians, but I do not wish to break off 

 negotiations with them yet." The assembly 

 finally resolved to submit the Russian proposi- 

 tion to the Akhund of 

 Swat, and in the mean 

 while admit the Rus- 

 sian agent to the dur- 

 bar without showing 

 him any particular 

 honors ; on the other 

 hand, the British agent, 

 Mohammed Khan, was 

 not to be invited to the 

 sessions till the close 

 of the Russo-Turkish 

 war, as the honesty of 

 the British sympathies 

 for the cause of Islam 

 was still to be proved. 

 At a later session the 

 Russian agent made a 

 proposal that Russian 

 troops be granted a 

 free passage through 

 Afghanistan, and the 

 right to establish gar- 

 risons at any point in 

 case the British should 



advance from Quetta against Herat. This 

 proposition was immediately rejected by the 

 Amir, who fears nothing more than foreign 

 troops in his dominions, and who refused to 

 receive an Englishman as permanent Brit- 

 ish ambassador, because the Indian Govern- 

 ment desired to furnish him with a considera- 

 ble escort. Herr von Schlagintweit adds that 

 this news comes from too good a source to be 

 doubted. 



At the Conference of Peshawer, Sir Lewis 

 Pelly made the continuance of the subsidy de- 

 pendent on the following conditions: To ac- 

 cept a permanent English resident at Cabool, 

 and to place at the head of the Afghan troops 

 a number of English officers, who should take 

 care that the soldiers were regularly paid. As 

 Shere All's pride did not allow him to accept 

 these proposals, which would have reduced 

 him to the condition of a vassal, and hampered 

 his freedom of action, the yearly subsidy was 

 stopped. Notwithstanding this unsuccessful 

 issue of the Peshawer negotiations, the Afghan 

 Amir long hesitated to break openly with his 

 old allies, though he was instigated to do so 

 by the Akhund of Swat and by his own people, 

 who more than once expressed their hostility 



