‘A collection of treaties, engagements and sanads relating to India and neighbouring countries’ [‎206] (223/578)

MHH
206
AFGHANISTAN.
Articles (No. II) were given to Yar Muhammad, acknowledging
him as Minister of Herat and the channel of all communications
with Shah Kamran; and in August a Treaty (No. Ill) of per
petual peace and friendship was concluded, the terms of which
were that the British Government should abstain from interference in
the internal administration of Herat, and assist Kamran with money
and officers against all foreign encroachment; and that Kamran should
prohibit the sale of his subjects into slavery; should refrain from enter
ing into hostilities or political correspondence with any foreign power
except with the consent of the British Government, to whose arbitration
all disputes with Shah Shuja were to he referred; should employ no
Europeans except subjects of Great Britain; and should facilitate trade.
Within a few weeks after the treaty was signed Yar Muhammad was
detected in renewed intrigues, offering to put Herat under the protection
of Persia, and urging the Shah to join in a league for the expulsion of
the English from Afghanistan. His insolent treatment of the mission
compelled Major Todd to withdraw, and to suspend the subsidy of Rs.
25,000 a month which was being paid to Herat. The envoy at Kabul
earnestly urged the advance of a force to punish the Wazir Minister. for his trea-
chery; hut this did not meet Lord Auckland’s views, who disavowed
Major Todd’s proceedings. Shortly afterwards the disasters occurred
at Kabul which ended in the evacuation of Afghanistan. No sooner
was Yai Muhammad relieved of all apprehension of the interference of
the British Government than he strangled his sovereign, Shah Kamran,
usurped the government of Herat, and professed himself a dependent of
Persia. This was in 1842.
During the second Punjab war Dost Muhammad descended from
Kabul and re-occupied the Peshawar valley; but, after the final overthrow
of the Sikhs at the battle of Gujrat, he retreated beyond the Khyber
on the approach of the British troops. For several ' vears thereafter
there was no intercourse bfetween the British Government and the Amir;
but the Amir did not cease to incite the hill tribes on the Peshawar
iQ-n^-u 1 t0 i ann ° y tlie Britisl1 Government bv perpetual hostilities. In
1850 he added Balkh to his dominions. Yar Muhammad, whose policy
maBl ^ a ^ n himself in real independence while soothing the Shah
of 1 ersia by empty acknowledgments of allegiance, died in 1851 and
was succeeded by his son Saiyid Muhammad Khan.
In 1854 Dost Muhammad Khan, finding himself weakened bv tl
antagonism of his brothers in Kandahar, and by the interference c
Persia, deputed his son, Ghulam Haidar Khan, to Peshawar, where, i
“ 1 . 855 ’ a Treat y (N°- IY) was concluded, stipulating that thei
s on hi be peace between the British Government and the Amir; tin
eacli should respect the territories of the other; and that the friends an
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