‘A collection of treaties, engagements and sanads relating to India and neighbouring countries’ [‎223] (240/578)

AFGHANISTAN.
223
the Viceroy, intimating his succession, and emphasising that, in seeking
friendship, he did so on behalf of “ our independent and free govern
ment of Afghanistan
On the 13th April the Amir held a Durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). at which Nasrulla Khan
was convicted of having instigated the murder of Habibulla, and was
sentenced to imprisonment for life. He died in jail in 1920. A
Colonel, held to be actual murderer, was executed, and other persons were
awarded imprisonment. These sentences did not, however, satisfy either
the public or the army, who doubted whether guilt had been correctly
imputed, and resented the action taken against Hasrulla.
Confronted with a situation of much difficulty, the Amir summoned
the tribal leaders to Kabul, despatched emissaries, money and ammuni
tion to the frontier tribes, established touch with revolutionaries in
India, and declared a Holy War against the British. Afghan forces were
despatched towards the end of April to Dacca, Khost and Kandahar,
and acts of war took place in the neighbourhood of Landi Khana on
the 3rd and 4th May. On the 5th May orders were issued for the
mobilisation of the field army in India.
On the 13th May British troops occupied Dacca, where on the 17th
May the Afghans suffered considerable casualties and the loss of five
Krupp guns. In Chitral they were driven out of Arnawai on the 23rd
May with a loss of four guns. The Royal Air Force bombarded Jalala
bad on the 19th and 20th May and both Jalalabad and Kabul on the
24th May. On the 27th May a British force occupied Spin Baidak, on
the Chaman front, after bombardment. On the isame date General
Hadir Khan invested Thai, but was compelled to retire on the 1st June.
When, on the 28th May, a letter was received from the Amir, ascribing
the outbreak of war to a misunderstanding, and suggesting an armistice,
considerable successes had already been gained by British arms in the
field, discounted however by the defection of the Khyber Rifles, and by
evacuations, followed by desertions of a majority of the Militias, in
Waziristan and the Tochi.
The Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, replied to the Amir in a letter which
refuted the Amir’s version of the causes of the war, stated the terms on
which an armistice would be granted, and named Rawalpindi as the
venue for a peace conference.
On the 8th August 1919, the delegates, chief of whom were Sir Hamil
ton Grant and Shahghassi Ali Ahmad Khan, signed the Treaty of
Rawalpindi (No. XXIII) whereby peace was established, the previous
subsidy, and all arrears of subsidy, were forfeited, and the privilege
of importing arms via, India was withdrawn; but prospects were
extended of further treaty negotiations after an interval of six months.
The Afghan Government further agreed to accept the In do-Afghan