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THE ARMAMENT 0E SHERE ALI’S ARMY. 
[Extracted from an Indian Newspaper.) 
COMMUNICATED BY 
LT.-COL. SIDNEY PARRY, R.H.A. 
Afghanistan is a nation of soldiers, every adult being (apart from any 
military training lie may receive) a ready swordsman and a fair shot. 
In our old wars we found but little organisation existing among* the 
followers of the Dost and his son, Mahomed Akhbar, and the discipline 
of our troops told in the long run against the masses they had to face. 
Afghanistan then produced, as a writer has said, nothing but stones 
and men: the stones made good sungars , and thousands of men were 
always ready to defend them. But after Shere Ali had assumed the 
Ameership, a change came over the <e war department 33 of the country : 
that shrewd sovereign had his eyes opened to the necessity for having 
something more than an unlimited supply of men to fight his battles, 
and after his visit to India, in 1869, he began to cast about for means 
whereby he could arm and equip his troops in civilised fashion. For¬ 
tunately for his project, he was on the best of terms at that time with 
the Indian Government, and among the valuable presents he carried 
back with him to Cabul were a siege-train (consisting of four 18-prs. 
and two 8-in. howitzers), a mountain battery of six guns, 5,000 Snider 
rifles, 15,000 Enfields, and no less than 1,000,000 rounds of ball am¬ 
munition. This was the ground-work upon which he hoped to build up 
a well-equipped army, with artillery sufficient to make himself feared 
by all his neighbours, and respected both by the English and Russian 
Governments, upon his relations with which might ultimately depend 
the safety of his kingdom. To a man of less energy than Shere Ali 
the project he took in hand would have seemed so full of difficulties 
that it might have been reasonably abandoned after a fair trial; but 
the then Ameer was a man of stubborn self-will, and his mind once 
made up, nothing could turn him from his object. The story of his 
successful struggle to create an army of all arms on the European 
pattern can be best told by reference to a report drawn up on 
information supplied by various sirdars and artizans since our occupation 
of Cabul. Lieut. N. Chamberlain, Extra Assistant Political Officer, is 
the compiler of this valuable report, which gives in detail an account of 
Shere Aiks steady progress in the armament of his kingdom, until he 
made the fatal mistake of quarrelling with the British. One cannot 
fail to be struck with astonishment at the rapidity with which guns 
