Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎90r] (183/312)

TEE CABINET COUNCIL.
Her M ajesty's Ministers consult together to-day
on one of the most momentous questions which has
arisen for England since Russia recommenced her
traditional policy of aggression. Whatever may be
thought of her direct complicity in the outrageous
insult offered to the Indian Government by S hbee
A li , there cannot be two opinions about her re
sponsibility for the present complications. If her
Government had acted up to its reiterated pledge
that Afghanistan lay beyond the sphere of
Russian politics, there would have been no
Muscovite Mission to Cabul, and in the absence of
that mischievous embassy, Lord L ytto^t might have
continued tojnegotiate leisurely with the A meer
until a friendly footing was established between
Afghanistan and British India. But the Cabinet
Council has moi'e pressing matter to attend to just
at present than the past conduct of Russia. The
question of the moment is whether our advance into
Afghanistan ought to take place immediately or
some months later, and on this problem
some of our morning contemporaries express
themselves with a dogmatism which would, perhaps,
be more admirable were it not necessarily based on
imasinative fancies and assumed facts. The inva
sion of Afghanistan would seem to be the easiest
matter in the world if these advisers-might be trusted,
while one in particular is so thoroughly conversant
with military strategy that we are informed the
advance must take place through the Khyber, and
by no other route. Even the number of men required
to overcome opposition is definitely fixed. Twenty
thousand would be required, no more, no less, and
these could readily be obtained, one half from the
countrv north of the •Thnluia. and the other moiety
from the Punjaub by railway. If the matter were so
easy as our contemporary makes out, we also should
be disposed to advocate an advance throu h the
Khyber direct on the capital. There is no question
that the efft'cr of such a bold proceeding would strike
the native mind much more forcibly than slower opera
tions. But it may be as well to bear in mmd that th^
questionis hedged round with import antconsiderations
military and political, about which we know npx r to
nothinsr. For instance, there, are the hill trib s-*-
the Khyberees, Wnzarees, Afredees, Momuds. and
what n it". Is the Daily News in a positi n to affirm
that these restless warriors would remain quiet
during the invasion ? It is estimated that the war
like clans can bring from 80.000 to 100,000 fighting
men into the field, and even if we could guard the
line of communic t ons between Peshawur and Cabul
with a force of 5.000 men, there would be a very
great probability of the hill men swarming over the
border in other directions.
We quite agive that punitive operations of 'ue sort
or another should be commenced without the loss of
more time than is needed to insure their success. But
ibis attempt to pin the In ian Government down to
an advance through the Khyber is a piece of almost
sublime self-opinionativeness in the absence of
comprehensive information about the military
and political exigencies of the situation. Surely
Lord L ytton and his advisers must be in a better
position to judge than those who have to evolve a
north-western frontier out of their inner conscious
ness. Our contemporary declares, for instance,
that " by a mixture of silver and lead " we could
not only secure the neutrality of the hill tribes, but
induce them to side heartily with us. To talk of
an Afredee "siding heartily" with any one for
any purpose is an absurdity in itself, but pass
ing over that blunder, our past experience proves
that the proposed mixture of silver and lead
only remains efficacious so long as the latter ingre
dient is plainly perceptible. Were a reverse to be
fall our arms in the Khoord Cabul and Jugdulluck
Passes, the hill men would forget all about our gifts
of silver, past, present, and to come, in their anxiety
for plunder. M ireover, it is to be remembered that,
although their allegiance to the A meer is of
rather a shadowy sort, they are Afghans pure and
unmixed, and as such, are bound by ties of kinship
and tradition to the more tractable subjects of S here
A li . Another curious error on the part of a journal
aspiring to dictate its course to the Governments
of England and India is its description of the
Peshawur Talley as so " fertile and populous " that
it ought to be able to furnish much both of stores
and transport for the proposed Khyber expedition.
The valley is neither fertile nor populous, taking
it as a whole. Stretching out from Nowshera,
the central station, are miles and miles of sandy soil
on which scarcely any crops wi;l grow, and an
equally desert-like appearance is presented by many
other parts of the valley. As for the quantity of
transport available betweeen Attock and PesL.wur,
the expedition would certainly not start this side of
Christmas if it had to depend in any measure upon
j the local supply.
Th > advice proffered to the Ministry in connection
with the question of the source fi'om which the cost
of operations should be defrayed is no less dogmatic
than the above. It is confidently laid down as a
matter about which there can be no dispute that
England ought to accept the whole of this burden
because the war is of an " Imperial" character, and
because India is a very poor country. We grant
both hypotheses, but what do they come to after all ?
Plainly, the establishment of a precedent which
would compel England to defray the cost of all
future wars in which our great dependency may be
engaged. For the Empire is one and indivisible,
and whenever India finds herself embroiled with
one of her neighbours, the strife necessarily has an
Imperial character. But if we once allowed the pie i
that India ought not to be called upon to pay her just
quota of expenses in these cases because her finances
are impoverished, it would be equivalent to placing the
burden during all future time on the British tax
payer. It is a somewhat suspicious circumstance
that this advice should have most prominently
come from a quarter not generally sup
posed to be over friendly to the Ministry.
Certainly some of our other contemporaries, not
open to that imputation, have now adopted the
suggestion in a passing paroxysm of gushing gene
rosity. But it was the most persistent and irrecon
cilable opponent of the Government in the metro
politan Press which first discovered that it would be
a shame and a disgrace if poor India had to pay a
farthing for bringing S herb A li to reason. We
cannot but imagine, uncharitable as it may
seem, that other reasons than the relief of
our old friend the Indian ryot have been
at work to bring about this exceptional outburst
of magnanimity. It almost looks as if there were an
intention of influencing the Government to do that
which would bring it into odium with the taxpaying
community of th s country. A general election must
take place within a couple of years, arfd it would look
a solid argument against Conservative rule to point
out that Lord B eaconspield and his colleagues I
Lad saddled the taxpayers of England with the pay- |
ment of some ten or twenty millions for an Afghan
wai-. The greater the sum, the stronger the
argument, and we can therefore imagine that while
our contemporary has been ostentatiously cham
pioning the cause of the oppressed Indian, it has
reaily had equally at heart that of dejected Libe
ralism. The Cabinet is not likely to fall
into the trap, we fancy, and, fortunately, it
can be avoided without doing injustice either to the
natives of India or to the people of England.
The former may be equitably called upon to provide
the pay and allowances of the troops engaged in the
operations, inasmuch as this obligation already fails
on India, and that country would not, therefore, be
put to anv extra expense. On the other hand,
wealthy England could not well demur to defraying
the extra expenses of a war which, although its scene
is on the northern frontier of Hindostan, deeply
concerns the most vital interests of her wide-
atretchine Empire,
QUETfAH.
The Week rajs:—-"Amons? things not generally
known may be classed Mr. C. Howard's s atement that
? ove ™ ment took Possession of Quettah and
collected a large force there/ Horace Walpole kverred
that a laay of his acquaintance had as good teeth as anv
one could have who had only three, and every one of
them decayed. Similarly, it may be said that Mr
Howard s remark is as true as any remark can be that
is divided mto three parts, and all three untrue. In the
first place Quettah is not a possession of the British
Crown. It belongs to the Khan of Khelat. and by 5s
permission is he d by a British garrison. Secondlv it
was during the brief vzoeroyaUy of Lord
whom the Liberals love to quote as a great Indian
authority that a British resident waV appointed to
Khelat and a garrison stationed at Quettah Thirdlv
and lastly, the garrison did tot exceed 2 000 men'
) including a halt battery of mountain arfcilierv, previous
; o Shere Ah s demonstration of hos'ility. ' The next
time Mr. Howard undertakes to in^tru^f-liia ft *
Alston it m i g ht be as well '
trouble to instruct himself." e