46 THE TWENTY-THIRD WAR: THE AFGHAN WAR. 



Everybody believed War was inevitable, and Russia, especially, 

 believed it was inevitable between her and England ; and at this 

 juncture, when our Government and the Press were uttering the 

 loudest blusters against Russia, a Russian Mission was sent to Cabul. 



Here was the real cause of the Afghan War of 1878, a War as 

 cowardly as it was unjust, and for this simple reason, that England 

 attacked the victim instead of the criminal ; England attacked the 

 helpless and defenceless Afghanistan, rather than the Might and 

 Power of Russia, who was, alike with England, responsible. 



At this period, 1878, Shere Ali was Ameer of Afghanistan, and 

 Lord Lytton was Governor-General of India. 



During the period of the twenty years Governor-Generalships of 

 India by Lord Lawrence, Lord Mayo, and Lord Northbrook, England 

 had no serious trouble in Afghanistan, but from the day when Lord 

 Lytton took the reins of Government, these miserable complications 

 began. 



Lord I>ytton reversed the policy of his predecessor, Lord Northbrook, 

 and moved an armed force into Beloochistan, occupied Quetta, which 

 commands the Bolan Pass, and is on the high road to Candahar, a 

 pohcy which alarmed the Ameer, for it was a direct challenge to the 

 freedom and independence of Afghanistan. 



This policy was evidently, in the iirst place, intended to pick a 

 quarrel with the Ameer, and in the second place, to enable the 

 English Government, under pretext ol a Russian Embassy to 

 Afghanistan, to seize upon a pretext for War. 



On the 13th August, 1878, intelligence reached the Indian 

 Government of the arrival of the Russian Embassy at Cabul, 

 and immediately a British Messenger left Peshawer for Cabul, 

 bearing two letters from the Viceroy, one letter asking for permission 

 for a British Mission under Sir Neville Chamberlain to come to 

 Cabul, to discuss with the Ameer important matters, and the other a 

 letter of condolence on the death of the Ameer's son. 



On the 1 2th September Sir Neville Chamberlain, who was at 

 Peshawer with an escort of 100 sabres and 50 bayonets, ordered 

 Major Cavagnari to move forward, without waiting for the answer and 

 approvalof the Ameer; and on reaching Ali Musjid, the Afghan officer 

 in command, Mahommed Khan, went out to meet him, shook hands 

 with the Major, and in a friendly way informed him, as he had no 

 orders, he could not let him pass, and so, after many expression^ of 

 friendship, the interview terminated. 



This was considered a serious rebuff to the Government of India, 



