Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎72r] (147/312)

courage, justice, a kindly demeanour, anS^a
strong physique havo never, in conjunction,
failed to win the hill-men over to peaceful life
and to mutual confidence. " Half pastoral, half
agricultural, wholly without lav/, but neither
destitute of honour nor virtue," is the character
' given by one who knew them well to the
powerful Waziri tribe. Being the most nume
rous and the most united of all the frontier
clans, they have never lost their-independence
from first to last. When asked where their
. country is, they point to the far-off horizon,,
where, against the azure sky, stand out
the snowy peaks of the Safed Koh,'
but, as a fact, they lord it all along
| the hundred and fifty miles of mountain fast-
| nesses that extend from the frontier of Tank
nearly to Jellalabad. These men have again and
again given us proof that they understaiid V:c
meaning of the word "loyalty," and that the
virtues that characterise Englishmen when in
1 power—moderation and justice, firmness and
clemency—work like a spell upon their wild,
half-ferine nature. We have, therefore, the
strong ground for hoping that in the part they
will soon have to play the hill-men of thq
Indian frontier will prove staunch servants; |
and, from their numbers and influence alo^g the |
border, they cannot fail to be valuable allies.
" yuus"
A few days will show whether our Indian
V iceboy is prepared to meet with prompt action
the insult which he has invited from the Ameei
or AEGHANiSTAif. That insult, we must repeat,
was in no sense a surprise. If our'relations with
fcUlEEE Alii had been up to the moment of the
despatch of Sii 4 S eville C hambebxaix's Mission
of the most cordial character, the breach mig'ht
justly have been described as unforeseen. Some
time must have elapsed before a force suiScient to
guard against the possibility of failure oould
have been ready to march across the frontier.
There would have been everything to be suid for
waiting till it should be seen whether S here A t.i
had repulsed our Envoy from a misunderstanding,
and would make conspicuous apology and repara
tion for his own. or his officer's insolence when the
misunderstanding was removed. But for the last
five years the relatious of the Indian Government
with Sheee All have been the reverse of cordial.
He refused an English Envoy admission ta
his territories last year, and roundly declared
Lord L y'itow's proposals to bo beyoisd the pale ol
discussion. It was a moral certainty that he
would not admit this year another Envoy bearing
the same proposals. It' Lord L ytton believed in
the possibility of a sudden change in the A meer's
views without there being any change in his cir
cumstances to work a conversion, such a belie!
was too entirely fanciful to, serve as a reasonable
basis for action. The refusal was at least so
certain that he ought to have been prepared to
enforce compliance. If be was not ready, he
ought not to have sent his Envoy till he was ready
A man would not hold out his nose to be pulled
if he meant to ask for time to go into training
before taking satisfaction for the insult. It is im
possible that we can sit down tamely under such
an affront as ( S h E be A li has administered in the
eight of all India, ^and, action being necessary, it
is of the utmost consequence on every groux^d that
! the action should be prompt. What is a mdasura
of chastisement now will, if delayed, become a
measure of occupation and annexation. It is for
this reason that we urge immediate action, which
will be limited in extent and duration. Delay means
time for the Afghan ruler to organize resistance, time
for volunteers from Central Asia to flock to hia
standard, time for the news of the discom
fiture of the English Power to spread
through the Indian bazaars, time for the
, discontented to exult over it, while the
: well-affected cannot silence their sneers by
! pointing to the spectacle of immediate retribu
tion. Delay means also time for the accumula
tion of enormous expenses, by no means the most
i insignificant consideration in this last wretched
result of playing at Imperialism. If Lord L yt»
ton's " commissariat " is not ready to move
before the advent of winter makes movement im
possible till next spring, he has been guilty of one
of the most wanton acts of folly ever committed
by a responsible statesman.
It is not yet too late to hope that the requisite
arrangemonts may be made to permit of the^de
spatch of a sufficient force into Afghanistan before
the winter sets in, though there is something
ominous in the pleas which the Ministerial
organs are urging it. favour of delay. Their elo
quence in excusing Lord Lyttojs - by anticipation
is as remarkable as their silence upon another
! point—the question of who is to pay the cost ol
: the expedition. Is it to be discharged by India
j or by England ? This, as we remarked two days
i a o 0 > when the question was first raised ia our
i columns by Mr. Fawcett , is not a mere side issue
in Lord Lyiton's new frontier policy. It concerns
| the security of our tenure of India as intimately
as the expedition itself. On. no ground, whether
of justice, of morality, or of expediency, are we
entitled to throw the expense upon India. In
point of law it is the national and not the Indiaii
exchequer that is liable. Under the Act of Par
liament which prescribes the constitution of the
Indian Government we cannot ask our depen
dency to pay any part of this bill, unless we force
a construction uijou the terms of the Act which
would equally have entitled us to charge L dia
I with the cost of the recent transport of native
j troops to the West. In defraying the cost of this
operation out of the national revenues the Govern-*
ment may be held to have already committed
themselves against any such shyloce -like con
struction of our " bond " to the natives of India,
In point of honour our obligation to pay for
the Afghan expedition is still clearer. We
have no more right to ask them to pay
for this expedition than we have to charge them
with the maintenance of our garrisons at Gibraltar
and Malta, or the cost of the occupation of
Cyprus, or the performance of our mysterious
obligations in Asia Minor. The chastisement of
the Amber , on their own showing, is as much
an Imperial affair as any one of these charges or
prospective charges upon the English Trea
sury. After the express declarations already
made by the representatives of the Govern-
} ment in Parliament, it would be in the last'
' degree disgraceful to throw the costs of our Im
perialism upon a dependent population who cannot
be consulted as to its wisdom. But even if wa
could overcome these foolish scruples of honour
and justice, if we could reconcile ourselvea
to forcing an interpretation of an Act
of Parliament in our own favour, and ii
we could lay the flattering unction to our con
sciences that we were doing all for the good of
| India and the glory of England, there is anothet
consideration behind which ou^ht to weigh in this
matter. It would not be prudent. It would not
be safe. There is no surplus in the Indian Ex
chequer to meet increased demands. As it is,
i India h as been getting year by year deeper and
deeper into t ebt. The population is so poor that
the taxes do not yield sufficient revenue to balance
the currant expenditure. We have it on the
fduthority of two of the moat eminent statesnaeu
who have filled the Viceregal office that the
taxation is already as heavy aa the people
can possibly bear. It cannot be increased
without provoking dangerous discontent, without
in short leaving hundreds of thousands of the ,
poverfcy-strickeji natives 4)o alternative between
starvation and the last resort of desperate men.
Enlightened selfishness, aa much as considera
tions of honour and justice, forbids us to impose
upon India the cost of an Afghan war. From i
no point of view is anything to be said in favour |
of such a course, except from that of the Ministry
If they wish to conceal from the nation how
costly an affair their Imperial policy is.
It is not creditable to the Government that they j
have not already, in pursuance of that system of j
officious communiques which they have introduced |
among other concomitants of Imperialism, inti
mated their views upon this important question.
If they cannot succeed, by careful economy and by i
abstention from theatrical schemes, in providing j
good administration for India at its own i
cost, a declaration that the charges of their j
reckless policy will be defrayed oat of the English !
Exchequer would help to avert gome of its ap
prehended couaequences. Two years ago, when
there were strong symptoms of hesitation in their
foreign policy, Lord Derby explained it by saying
that 1 hoy were waiting for instructions. Perhaps
they are waiting for instructions in this case.
There can be no doubt what the instructions from
the English people ought to be. There are mem
bers of the Cabinet who should be abpve the
necessity of waiting for them. A Cabinet con
taining two ex-Secretaries of State for India