Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎135v] (279/312)

" one fourth of what they actually coat; and
" I believe this estimate to have been fairly aocu-
" rate for the whole of Bengal and Bahar during
" that period." Assuredly it will be strange if
the completed inquiries do not suggest some better
I method of relieving famine than those disastrous
failures, the sc-called u relief works," Whatever
may have been the shortcomings of the past, it is
satisfactory to find that measures are now being
adopted to solve the difficulty on the only sound
basis of abundant and accurate information. If
I Jndhi is to be held, it haa often been said, Tn d;*. j
j must be economically governed, and government
j in the dark could not be economical government.
RUSSIA.
from om own correspondent.
ST. PETERSBURG, O CT . 10.
I have good reason to believe the British
Government will not be so satisfied as is generally
imagined here with the reply of this Cabinet to
the note addiessed with regard to the complica-
lions with Affghaniatan. Although no positive
-demand is likely to be made by the Cabinet of St.
g James for a recall of Colonel Stoljetoff or any
other Russian Minister from Cabul, the Czar will
be distinctly told that the presence of his agenb
at the Court of the Ameer must, in case of
war v-ith the latter, be interpreted as a
sign that he is secretly sympathising with,
if not supporting, the arrogant chieftain.
The British have learned from the ambiguous
policy of Russia during the war with China to ba
vsejl en their guard against hostile machination
on the part of the Muscovites. Certainly no in
tention prevails of restricting the prerogatives of
his Russian majesty, including the despatch o =
accreditation of Ministers abroad, but the
right must be maintained of asking for
explanations if these representatives are sus
pected of scheming and intriguing agaias
the interests of a nation with which Russia pre
tends to live in peace. Great reticence is still
observed by the leading papers in their comments
on the war apparently imminent between Great
Britain and Affghanistan. An exception to this
reserve is, strange to say, made by the Bourse
Gazette, which during the Turco-Russian campaign
kept such an independent, anti-warlike course.
In reading one of its last diatribes one could
scarcely imagine that its columns, now filled with
the bitterest denunciations, were only a few monthi
ago remarkable for the sober tone of their utterances.
"If we consider it possible," writes the Gazette,
" to carry on war and exhaust our means merely
for the purpose of obtaining this or that delimita
tion of the Balkan provinces without any chance
of realising our aim, the question is far more im
portant, who is to become possessor of the moun
tain passes forming the only connection betsveen
British India and our Central Asiatic pro
vinces ? Only in Affghanistan can a decision
be arrived at as to the possibility of de
fending the East against the unscrnpulon
pretensions of England. We must maintain
our supremacy over the mountain passes of tha
Hindoo Koosh, or the British will never cease in
their meddlesome attempts at intervention in th3
affairs of Central Asia." The Gazette then con
tinues to prove the easy practicability of with
standing a British invasion of Affghanistan : —
"As General Stoljetoff's expedition to Cabul has
opened the way between Tashkent and Cabul,
let us march to the assistance of the Ameer
"with the 20 battalions of infantry and
the cavalry and artillery stationed in Turkes
tan. With only the tenth part of the
troops which England forces us to maintain in
the Balkan Peninsula we could reinforce our
army in Turkestan and render it invincible
against the British. A pretence for war is not
wanting, for every one knows that the stroka
dealt against the Ameer is in fact aimed by the
British at Russia. In its unbounded ambition
the English Cabinet now already makes recon
ciliation with the Ameer dependent on
the expulsion of the Russian Resident at
Cabul. No passion for war, no vain Chau
vinism, no lust for conquest, but merely
sound judgment and common sense, dictate these
.expressions. We are no Don Quixotes, inciting
the people for alleged religious motives or long
ing for national unity to wars of liberation ; but
the Affghan question so deeply concerns four
interests that we must valiantly uphold the cause
of the Ameer if we do not vrish to be again hum
bugged by England, as was only so lately the
case." I recommend this article, the. furious
language of which was in translation by no means
augmented, but on the contrary moderated, to
the earnest attention of the statesmen who have
to direct British policy in this highly-important
matter.
Government is still extremely annoyed at the
proceedings of the International Commission sent
to the Rhodope mountains for investigation into
the causes of the insurrectionary rising, especially
the British and the French delegates are severely
attacked for their pretended one-sided and hostile
opinions on the Russian army. The Journal de
St. FStershourg, the organ of the Foreign-office, has
in a very bitter arti e once more returned to the
subject. The resume drawn up by Mr. Challet,
the French representative, is denounced as
a network of lies and misinterpretations,
utterly inadequate for the formation of some
lasting work. With a significant hint
England is reminded of the want of tact dis
played by her delegate in his attacks on the disci
pline and proper behaviour of a victorious army
still encamped in the territories of the late
enemy, and so entirely in their power. I have good
reason to assume that the backwardness
cf the Austrian and German commissioners
in signing the final report was caused
by a direct appeal of the Czar to the
Emperors Wilhelm and Francis Joseph, whom
he implored not to sanction such slanderous
attacks on his troops as originally proposed by the
commission. The German delegate. Consul
Miiller, who was harshly rebuffed for having put
his name to the protocols so objectionable to the
Czar, refused point blank to subscribe the report,
whilst bis Austrian colleague shuffled out of the
duty on plea of ill health.
General Trepoff is expected to return on the
i 13th inst. Rumours assert that the Czar intends
appointing him Governor of St. Petersburg, with
the fullest authority to suppress the highly
dangerous agitation of the Nihilists. In connec
tion with these reports statements have been
published to the effect that the whole third depart
ment of his Majesty's own Chancellery will be
abolished and replaced by a regular Ministry of
Police, as chief of which General Drenteln, just
nominated to succeed the late General Mesantzoff,
is principally named. A special commission is
now at work defining the duties and preroga
tives of the new Ministry.
'Lieutenant-General Tschertkoff II., Governor
of Kieff, Podolia, and Volhynia, has been also
entrusted with the command of all the troops
garrisoned in his district. Count Lawaschoff,
until recently Prefect of Odessa, has retired from
active service in consequence of the reprimand
addressed to him by the Czar for his alleged too
great leniency towards the Nihilists. His Majesty i
was so angry with the Count that ha ordered him 1
to go abroad for a certain time. Lewaschoff has j
been succeeded in his office as Prefect of Odessa
Jby Major -General Heinz , formerly governor of |
Turgaisk, who has the reputation of being a very j
harsh and unb ending offi cial.
OUR F1B8T INVASION OF
AFFQHANISTAN.
" Anglo-Ind" writes in the Observer as follows;— :
" I have alluded in a fcrmer letter to the mischievoas
effecte cf the Eens &tional style of wrtting history, espa-
cially when applied to the first Affghan war. Some of
these efiecte are apparent in the attempts made by a car-
tain class of writers to frighten the more timid amoagst
us by exaggerated accounts of the evil that befel a por
tion cf our army 36 years ago in the deSlea batwsaa ■
Cabul and Gundamuck, and by perverted versiona of the
events snd motives which led to our former interference
in the affairs of AffgLanistan. Exaggerations and errors,
if not corrected, repeat themselves to all time as histori- \
| cal truths, and a tale, it is proverbially kaown, nsvar
loses by the telling. This is well exemplified in the re
production of old blunders and the manufacture of sew
cnes by careless or incompetent compilers of pamphlets
on Affghanistan.
" Briefly pu f , the motives that drag us into the preaeas
war are the same as those which dragged us to Otibal in