Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎51v] (105/312)

TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE THIRD AFGHAN WAE.
THIS Afghan business is a very bad business. Lord Lytton, in
the foolish, feverishness of his desire for action, and Lord
Beaconsfield, in his eagerness for a showy policy, have almost
deprived her Majesty's Government of their freedom of action in
Afghanistan. The Viceroy of India has placed himself in
such a position that his face has been slapped by a semi-
barbarous potentate in full sight of all Asia, and the Govern
ment must either avenge the insult by a great war and a
burdensome annexation, or recall him, and submit to a serious
loss of dignity and prestige. There was no necessity whatever,
even on the Jingo theory, for hurrying the Mission forward to
Afghanistan before the Native Agent Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government. just received by Shere
Ali had returned from Cabul, still less for acting without the
secret but trustworthy intelligence from that city which every
Viceroy has hitherto obtained. Lord Lawrence or Lord North-
brook would have known Shere Ali's decision to a word. Lord
Lytton, however, either acting on instructions intended to
provoke a war, or full of confidence in the inability of the
Ameer to resist the impression of his showy preparations,
ordered the Mission, a huge cavalcade of 1,000 men—
" too large," as Lord Carnarvon has said, " for a Mis
sion, and too small for an army," to enter the Khyber Pass.
It had no sooner crossed the frontier at Jumrood, than Sir
Neville Chamberlain, the chief Envoy, was informed by a
trusted officer of the Ameer, who, it is ascertained, had just
received special instructions from his master, that its advance
would be resisted by force, and the force was displayed on the hills
commanding the defile. Sir Neville's agent. Major Cavagnari,
conferred with the officer for three hours, and pointed out the
direct and terrible responsibility of the Ameer, but without effect,
and as a further advance would have caused a useless loss of valu
able lives, and perhaps have ended in a massacre which would
have sent an electric shock throughout India, the Envoy took his
cavalcade back quietly to Peshawur, there to await orders from
the Governments of India and Great Britain. That in this retreat
he was in the right there can be no question. Sir Neville
Chamberlain is not only an officer of the highest class, a man
carefully selected for the command of a separate army, but he
is an experienced Political, he understands the men of this
region, and he could tell at a glance if those who threatened
him were bragging or if they were acting under orders, and
finding the latter to be the case, he only receded before a
visible impossibility. Only an organised European division,
properly supported, could force the Khyber Pass in the teeth of
the mountaineers and Afghans together, or emerge with
baggage on the Afghan side of the continuous thirty-three
miles of gorges, commanded by hills on both sides, occupied ;
by matchlock-men, of which the Pass consists. There i
has been no error of management on Sir Neville's part, ;
and there can be no mistake as to his adversary's
meaning. Afghan officers do not exceed their Ameers in
structions, nor would the Hillmen insult Great Britain with
out the fullest certainty that they would be supported. It is
certain that Shere Ali issued the orders to stop the Mission,
and his motive is the one we indicated last week. He thinks
his independence worth retaining; he has resolved to fight,
rather than yield one jot of the Indian Government's demands;
and having resolved, has bidden us defiance, with the rude
fury which the polished Asiatic, once resolved on resistance,
invariably displays.
Nor can there be any question of the seriousness of the in
sult, for Lord Lytton has done everything that in him lay to
give it point and meaning. Instead of sending a quiet Em
bassy, he has sent a pompous Mission, with a Commander-in-
Chief at its head, two Indian Princes in its train, and 1,000
followers, cavalry and infantry together, to increase
its splendour. Instead of keeping the whole matter
in the Secret Department, and so leaving himself free
up to the last moment, he has paraded his designs
throughout India and Europe, has encouraged official news
papers in India to urge action, and has described, in communicated
telegrams addressed through the Times to all Europe, the great
deeds he intended to perform. The attention of two contin
ents has been fixed upon his " policy," and the sound of its
failure is already reverberating through every bazaar of India
and every capital of Europe. There is not a Mussulman in
India whose head is not the higher because of Shere Ali's
bold defiance, or a statesm an in Europe who is not