Correspondence and Papers on Persia [‎9r] (22/107)

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fall of the Gladstone Cabinet will stimulate the Russians to fur
ther efforts, for the negotiations regarding the debateable land
are by no means concluded, and the cloud of war still lies on the
horizon. Our answer to this telegraph extension in the Herat
direction should be the laying of the wire from Jamrud to
Kabul. The first section, from the little fort which serves as
the outpost of Peshawar to Lundi Kotal, could be made with
ease. If the Amir could be won over to see the advantages of
having his capital in telegraphic communication with India,
the line could be carried through Jellalabad and Gundamak to
Kabul in a few weeks, for our telegraph officers know every
inch of the road and could place the posts almost on the very
spots they occupied during the Afghan War. Abdur Rahman’s
authority is so fully recognised by the tribesmen along the
route that our working parties would be safe from molestation
if guarded by a small Afghan escort, and once the wire was
laid it would probably be left intact if the various local head
men were made responsible to the Amir for its safety. Our ally
on arrival at Jamrud wrote with his own hand a telegram to
the Viceroy ; he was greatly interested in the telephone and
electric light apparatus at Rawalpindi—so much so that he
carried back with him various appliances which are now being
used at Kabul; some Afghans have been initiated in Bombay
into the mysteries of electricity: and we cannot but think that
a little judicious pressure would induce His Highness to accept
the Jamrud-Kabul telegraph line as a necessity arising from
the present critical state of affairs. The Afghan traders who
visit India use the telegraph freely, and they would not be
slow to welcome it in their own country. Thus it would serve
both political and trade purposes, and would exert a civilising
influence in Northern Afghanistan. Kabul is only 160 miles
from our frontier, and couriers easily cover the distance in
three days, but direct telegraphic communication between the
Amir and the Government of India is highly necessary, as even
a few days’ delay might, in the near future, be of serious mo
ment. Our alliance with Afghanistan is patent now after the
Rawalpindi 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). , to all the world ; and another outward and
visible sign of its existence, in the shape of a telegraph line t"
Kabul, would not offend the delicate susceptibilitios of Abdur
Rahman’s subjects. That the line should be made without delay
is the opinion certainly of the majority of those who are best
acquainted with the complex Central Asian Question.
“Pioneer, 31st July 1885.”
Persia is keeping pace with the times in the exten
sion of her telegraph line upon which we rely for the quick