Nor does the second Afghan War afford a parallel with the
first except in superficial aspects.
first except in superficial aspects.
Cambridge History of India - v4 - Indian Empire
cit.
pp.
342 599.
• Roberts, op. cit. 11, 254; cf. Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 375-6.
• Roberts, op. cit. 11, 192 599. ; Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 361.
• Lady G. Cecil, op. cit. 11, 375.
? Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 376 sqq.
$ Cf. idem, p. 408.
cit.
## p. 421 (#459) ############################################
ABD-UR-RAHMAN
421
clear-minded. He looked the personification of watchful strength
moved by an inflexible will, and hadindeed inherited his grandfather's,
Dost Muhammad's, vigour, judgment and ferocity. In 1880, after
many discussions with the Russian governor-general, Abd-ur-rahman
obtained leave to return to Afghanistan, and set out from Tashkent
with a small party of men. Next day, as he was on the march, he
received, as he thought, a sign from God. As sometimes happens in
the Central Asian deserts,' he thought he heard a great cavalcade, to
the number of 20,000, draw level with him and gradually pass on
ahead. "By this I reasoned that God had cleared my way for me. "
Full of hope he entered Balkh, praying Allah either to overthrow the
English or to turn their hearts. As soon as Lytton heard of his
appearance, he had directed Lepel Griffin (the English political agent
at Kabul) to send him conciliatory messages, and, in spite of sus-
picions natural against one who had been long connected with
Russians, it was decided to enter into negotiations with him. But at
this stage matters were interrupted by the arrival (8 June, 1880) of
a new governor-general, Lord Ripon.
In the previous spring a general election, in the course of which
Radical speakers had made great play with Lytton's conduct of the
Afghán question, had replaced Beaconsfield by Gladstone as prime
minister, Cranbrook by Hartington at the India Office, and Salisbury
by Granville at the Foreign Office. Northbrook, who took the
Admiralty in the new cabinet, was violently opposed to the policy to
which he had been sacrificed and loudly insisted on the instant need
of surrendering every post on the further side of the hills and returning
to the old frontier line. Accordingly the evacuation of Sibi and Pishin
was promised in the queen's speech in the opening session of 1881. 6
But the zealots for retreat met with unexpected opposition from their
governor-general. Ripon had, indeed, gone out to India with a strong
bias against Lytton and all his works. He had on arrival ransacked
the records of the political department in the hope of finding schemes
that would have blasted for ever the reputations of Lytton and
Beaconsfield. ? But in fact he had taken over the negotiations with
Abd-ur-rahman at the point where Lytton had laid them down and
conducted them to the conclusion at which Lytton had already aimed.
Under his orders Griffin reached an understanding with Abd-ur-
rahman by which Pishin and Sibi were retained, and by which the new
amirplaced the management of his foreign relations under the Govern-
ment of India, in return for which the Indian Government promised
to pay the amir an annual subsidy. 8 Abd-ur-rahman had already
1 Cf. Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 439; Sir Alfred Lyall, ap. Edinburgh Review, April, 1889;
Gray, At the Court of the Amir, p. 158.
· Cf. Marco Polo, Travels (ed. Yule and Cordier), 1, 197.
• Abd-ur-rahman, op. cit. 1, 155599.
• Idem, 1, 192, 194; Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 412, 428 sqq.
• Wolf
, Life of Ripon, 11, 40, 48.
* Idem, 11, 12, 19.
• Memorandum of conversations, 31 July-1 August, 1880 (F. O. 65-1104).
• Idem, 1, 190.
## p. 421 (#460) ############################################
420
CENTRAL ASIA, 1858–1918
had strongly desired the establishment of a British mission, but had
contemplated its residence at Herat, not at Kabul. Yakub, however,
had himself proposed Kabul, willing to run any risk provided he
could secure the support of the British army. The proposal was
accepted with some misgivings. Cavagnari, resolute and forceful,
was named resident-an admirable man in a crisis, but less suited for
a position of delicacy. He reached Kabul on 24 July. He was well
received with an Afghan rendering of God save the Queen. On
3 September he was murdered in the course of a real or pretended
mutiny of unpaid troops. Roberts's opinion, probably correct, was
that Yakub intended a demonstration which should show his inability
to protect the mission and so obtain its withdrawal. Events had
shown that Lytton had been unlucky in finding himself virtually
obliged to adopt Yakub as Sher 'Ali's successor, and unwise in
agreeing to the mission's being placed at Kabul and in selecting
Cavagnari as his agent there.
This misfortune led necessarily to a renewal of the campaign.
Roberts advanced by the Kurram Pass and occupied Kabul on
7 October. Yakub had joined him on the march, declaring that he
would rather be a grass-cutter with the English than attempt to rule
the Afghans. Roberts's swift movement disconcerted the tribesmen,
and though his cantonments were attacked, he had small difficulty
in holding his position through the following winter. Meanwhile the
political problem demanded solution. All agreed that Yakub should
not be restored. He was removed to India, pensioned, and resided at
Dehra Dun till his death in 1923. As no suitable candidate for the
amirat could be found, both Lytton and the home government inclined
to a policy of disintegration. The Foreign Office even began negotia-
tions with Teheran about the terms on which Persia might be suffered
to occupy. Herat, while a representative of the old Sadozai house,
Wali Sher 'Ali Khan, was recognised as sardar of Kandahar. ? Since
this arrangement, together with the occupation of the territory assigned
by Yakub, would secure the line of advance upon Herat whenever
necessary, and outflank any hostile advance from Kabul towards
India, it was thought that it did not greatly matter who held Kabul. 8
These tentative arrangements, however, were quickly brought to an
end by an unexpected and very fortunate development. Ever since
Sher 'Ali's establishment in power in 1868, his nephew, Abd-ur-
rahman, had been living under Russian protection, mainly at
Samarkand. He was now a man of forty-short and stoutly built,
with bluff but pleasant manners and an easy smile, self-possessed,
1 Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 336.
2 Forrest, op. cit. p. 494.
3 Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 342 599.
• Roberts, op. cit. 11, 254; cf. Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 375-6.
• Roberts, op. cit. 11, 192 sqq. ; Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 361.
o Lady G. Cecil, op. cit. 11, 375.
· Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 376 sqq.
$ Cf. idem, p. 408.
## p. 421 (#461) ############################################
ABD-UR-RAHMAN
421
clear-minded. He looked the personification of watchful strength
moved by an inflexible will, and had indeed inherited his grandfather's,
Dost Muhammad's, vigour, judgment and ferocity. In 1880, after
many discussions with the Russian governor-general, Abd-ur-rahman
obtained leave to return to Afghanistan, and set out from Tashkent
with a small party of men. Next day, as he was on the march, he
received, as he thought, a sign from God. As sometimes happens in
the Central Asian deserts, 2 he thought he heard a great cavalcade, to
the number of 20,000, draw level with him and gradually pass on
ahead. “By this I reasoned that God had cleared my way for me. "
Full of hope he entered Balkh, praying Allah either to overthrow the
English or to turn their hearts. •' As soon as Lytton heard of his
appearance, he had directed Lepel Griffin (the English political agent
at Kabul) to send him conciliatory messages, and, in spite of sus-
picions natural against one who had been long connected with
Russians, it was decided to enter into negotiations with him. But at
this stage matters were interrupted by the arrival (8 June, 1880) of
a new governor-general, Lord Ripon.
In the previous spring a general election, in the course of which
Radical speakers had made great play with Lytton's conduct of the
Afghán question, had replaced Beaconsfield by Gladstone as prime
minister, Cranbrook by Hartington at the India Office, and Salisbury
by Granville at the Foreign Office. Northbrook, who took the
Admiralty in the new cabinet, was violently opposed to the policy to
which he had been sacrificed and loudly insisted on the instant need
of surrendering every post on the further side of the hills and returning
to the old frontier line. Accordingly the evacuation of Sibi and Pishin
was promised in the queen's speech in the opening session of 1881. 6
But the zealots for retreat met with unexpected opposition from their
governor-general. Ripon had, indeed, gone out to India with a strong
bias against Lytton and all his works. He had on arrival ransacked
the records of the political department in the hope of finding schemes
that would have blasted for ever the reputations of Lytton and
Beaconsfield. ' But in fact he had taken over the negotiations with
Abd-ur-rahman at the point where Lytton had laid them down and
conducted them to the conclusion at which Lytton had already aimed.
Under his orders Griffin reached an understanding with Abd-ur-
rahman by which Pishin and Sibi were retained, and by which the new
amir placed the management of his foreign relations under the Govern-
ment of India, in return for which the Indian Government promised
to pay the amir an annual subsidy. 8 Abd-ur-rahman had already
1 Cf. Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 439; Sir Alfred Lyall, ap. Edinburgh Review, April, 1889;
Gray, At the Court of the Amir, p: 158.
: Cf. Marco Polo, Travels (ed. Yule and Cordier), 1, 197.
Abd-ur-rahman, op. cit. I, 155599.
• Idem, 1, 190.
• Idem, 1, 192, 194; Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 412, 428 599.
• Wolf, Life of Ripon, 11, 40, 48.
° Idem, 11, 12, 19.
• Memorandum of conversations, 31 July-1 August, 1880 (F. O. 65-1104).
## p. 422 (#462) ############################################
422
CENTRAL ASIA, 1858–1918
given evidence of his real desire for English friendship. When in July,
1880, Ayub Khan, Sher 'Ali's son, had attacked Burrows, commanding
the English force at Kandahar, inflicting on him a severe defeat at
Maiwand, the amir had promptly dispatched letters to all the chiefs
on the route by which Roberts was to march from Kabul to retrieve
the situation, directing them to afford the English all possible as-
sistance; and this explains at least in part the case with which Roberts
effected his famous march from Kabul to Kandahar, leading to the
complete defeat of Ayub Khan's forces. When, therefore, Ripon was
called upon to give effect to the declared policy of the liberal cabinet,
he told Hartington bluntly that it would lead in ten years' time to
another Afghan war, and broadly hinted that he would rather resign
than overrule his council in order to carry out what he regarded as
a mistaken policy. The cabinet accordingly permitted its declara-
tions to fall into a convenient if dishonest oblivion.
The settlement thus reached brought to a close a most dangerous
phase of the Central Asian question. Lytton may be blamed for his
provocative handling of the proposal to establish an Afghan mission
and for his selection at a later time of a too sanguine agent to conduct
British relations with the amir Yakub. But he had inherited a position
of extreme difficulty. Argyll's decision of 1873 had already convinced
Sher 'Ali that he had nothing to hope for from the English; while he
fancied from their previous conduct that he had nothing to fear from
them either. Accordingly he had turned to Russia. Lytton had to
disabuse him of his error. Probably Lytton was right in thinking that
nothing short of war would do so. In any case war was made in-
evitable by the Russian action in the crisis of 1878. Stolietoff's
embassy imperatively demanded the submission or destruction of
Sher 'Ali. In view of the developments of the following ten years, the
policy adopted by Salisbury and Lytton was justified in its broad
outlines.
Nor does the second Afghan War afford a parallel with the
first except in superficial aspects. Both, of course, illustrate the ease
with which Afghanistan may be occupied and the difficulty with
which it can be held. But the first ended with the mere restoration
of the ruler whom the British had dethroned, with no advantage
military or political or diplomatic. The second replaced a hostile by
a friendly amir; it brought to a decisive end the disastrous policy of
Lawrence and Argyll; and it provided India, for the first time since
the collapse of the Moghul Empire, with a position from which the
north-west frontier could easily be defended.
Up to this time the Russian frontier had not pressed too closely on
Afghanistan. But now Russia, taking advantage of the numerous
external difficulties of the Gladstone government, and fortified by a
1 Cf. Kabul Diary, week ending 8 August, 1880 (F. O. 65-1104).
2 Wolf, op. cit. II, 39;
: Cf. Davies, The North-West Frontier, pp. 10 599.
## p. 423 (#463) ############################################
RUSSIA AND GLADSTONE
423
secret treaty with Germany, thought the time had come for abandoning
intentions which had been the subject in the past of repeated declara-
tions. The Merv oasis afforded the first example. It is likely that the
strategic importance of this region had been greatly exaggerated by
persons suffering from what the Duke of Argyll (with school-boy
humour) was pleased to call "mervousness”. ? It was, however, in
disagreeable proximity to Herat, and on several occasions the British
Foreign Office had sought reassurances regarding its future. In 1882
these were repeated. De Giers assured the British ambassador in a
conversation, not once but repeatedly, that the mission of Russia was
one of peace and that she had no intention whatever of occupying
fresh territory3 Within three months British agents were possessed
of documents showing that the Russians were seeking the submission
of the Meiv chiefs, and in fact, at the moment when the Russian
foreign minister was soothing the British ambassador, the Merv
chieftains were being urged and bribed to submit. Finally, early in
1884, when Mr Gladstone was embarrassed by the Mahdi in the
Sudan, the chiefs were beguiled and coerced into tendering allegiance
to the emperor, while the War Office at St Petersburg prepared a map
showing the Merv boundaries stretching southwards and touching
the Hari-rud near Herat. As Curzon said, “the flame of diplomatic
protest blazed fiercely forth in England; but, after a momentary
combustion, was as usual extinguished by a flood of excuses from the
inexhaustible reservoirs of the Neva”. ?
This event created such general uneasiness that the liberal govern-
ment could not leave matters where they stood. Conversations,
which had been begun in London as early as 1882,8 led to a reference
to St Petersburg. ' But although the imperial government regarded
Gladstone with a singular benevolence, 10 the operation of that senti-
ment was certainly limited by the need of taking the utmost advantage
of his tenure of office. While, therefore, it was willing enough to approve
the idea of formally defining the northern boundary of Afghanistan,
it also began to refer casually to Panjdeh and the need of establishing
peace in that area. 11 Granville eagerly took up the idea of a joint
delimitation; an Indiaiofficial, Sir Peter Lumsden, was appointed
to conduct the British mission, the amir was invited to provide
qualified officers, and Granville proposed that the British and Russian
missions should meet at Saraks on 1 October, 1884. 12 He thus
assumed that Russia really intended to co-operate. But for that the
Russian leaders did not yet deem the time to be ripe. They certainly
1 Curzon, op. cit. p. 120.
2 The Eastern Question, II, 371.
• Parl. Papers, 1884, LXXXVII, 77.
• Idem, p. 95; cf. Baddeley, Russia in the Eighties, p. 129.
• Curzon, op. cit. p. 111.
• Parl. Papers, 1884, LXXXVII, 183; 1884-5, LXXXVII, 38, 40, 41, 47, 49.
? Curzon, op. cit. p. 111.
& Parl. Papers, 1884, LXXXVII, 66.
10 Meyendorff, Correspondance de M. de Staal, i, 27.
11 Parl. Papers, 1884-5, LXXXVII, 60, 63, 75. 12 Idem, pp. 78, 96, 111.
• Idem, p. 70.
## p. 424 (#464) ############################################
424
CENTRAL ASIA, 1858–1918
aimed at securing positions which would place under their control
the entire body of nomad Turkoman tribes. Therefore, while they
named General Zelenoi head of the Russian boundary mission, they
also smote him with illness and insisted that on his recovery he must
have a prolonged period in which to study his instructions and gather
information. By that time climatic conditions would make surveying
impossible, so that nothing could be done till February, 1885, at
soonest. In December, as time was passing, the Russian ambassador
was ordered to seek British assent to the essential points of the Russian
proposals, which now claimed Panjdeh as independent of the amir.
At the same time, in order to cover the Russian movements, complaints
were made of aggressive Afghan concentrations. 2 Granville claimed
that the definition of Afghan territory should be left to the commission. 3
To this De Giers would not agree, and claimed districts which the
British declared to belong to Afghanistan. “ By April the discussions
had reached a deadlock. Lumsden, who had gone with his mission
into north-western Afghanistan, had already reported repeated ag-
gressions on the part of the Russian rilitary forces. Then when the
telegraph line from Meshed was conveniently interrupted, belated
news reached London on 9 April that the Russians on 30 March had
attacked a body of Afghan troops and driven them out of Panjdeh. 8
Mr Gladstone's position was most difficult. Gordon's death at
Khartum had cast great odium upon his policy. The Irish question
was looming up ominous and unsettled. A new humiliation would
certainly terminate his tenure of office. So, though personally desiring
war no more than Disraeli had done in 1878, he was driven by circum-
stances into assuming a defiant attitude. He called up the reserves
and moved a vote of credit for special military preparations. De Giers
had contemplated carrying his point by bluff. He had even wired the
Russian ambassador for the information of the English cabinet that
the Afghan commandant at Panjdeh had lamented his inability to
comply with the Russian demands because the English officers forbade
him. But on the news of the vote of credit he withdrew his telegram. '
The ambassador, de Staal, who laboured for peace at this crisis, made
unofficial proposals which would, he hoped, assist the liberals to retain
office at the cost of something less than war. 10 Nor did the Russian
Government desire war-if it could attain its objects without. On the
English side it was proposed that even if Abd-ur-rahman had to give
up Panjdeh, he should at least retain Zulfikar. As the Russians set
a high value upon the first and none upon the second," and as the
English public was completely ignorant of Central Asian geography,
1 Parl. Papers, 1884-5, LXXXVII, p. 121.
2 Idem, p. 149.
3 Idem, p. 151.
• Idem, pp. 175. 599.
6 Idem, p. 230.
& Idem, pp. 184, 198; cf. his dispatches, ap. F. 0, 65-1235, 1236, 1237, 1238.
? Parl. Papers, 1884-5, LXXXVII, p. 231.
8 Cf. Holdich, The Indian Borderland, pp. 127 899.
• Meyendorff, op. cit. I, 200, 201.
10 Idem, i, 189 399.
11 Idem, 1, 191.
1
## p. 425 (#465) ############################################
PANJDEH
425
the ministry was able to represent this as a graceful concession to
English wishes. As regards the attack upon Panjdeh, which in the
first flush of resentment and alarm Gladstone had characterised as
"an unprovoked aggression”,1 the emperor refused emphatically to
admit the least enquiry into the conduct of the commander, General
Kumarof;a but suggestions were put about that the question whether
Russia had violated her understanding with Great Britain might be
referred to the head of a friendly state. The arbitrator Granville had
in mind was the German emperor, since his character and experience
would give great weight to his decision. Russia, perhaps for the same
reasons, insisted that the choice must fall on no one but the King of
Denmark. 5 This too was conceded, and Gladstone was thus freed
to apply his supple tongue to soothing the passions which his political
position had for the moment compelled him to encourage and even
to simulate. ? But all his dexterity could not completely hide the
natyre of his settlement, even from his own countrymen. The Russian
Foreign Office became of course yet more exigent. When Granville
accepted the general principles laid down by Russia earlier in the year,
he found himself confronted by new and more stringent demands,
inspired by the Russian War Office. In June the Gladstone ministry
fell, and Lord Salisbury then took over the negotiations. After pro-
longed and difficult discussions regarding the area which was covered
by the name “Zulfikar”, a protocol was at last signed on 10 Septem-
ber, and the projected arbitration, which had served Gladstone's turn
well enough, was allowed to lapse. 10
As a result of the discussions initiated in 1884 regarding the Afghan
boundaries and the appointment of a commission of delimitation,
Amir Abd-ur-rahman had been invited to confer with the new
governor-general, Lord Dufferin, at Rawulpindi; and he was actually
there when the Panjdeh crisis emerged. Even before the incident the
English ministry had anxiously sought to moderate his claims, 11 and
he then seemed to regard the Pass of Zulfikar, Gulran and Maruchak
as the only places of vital importance. 12 News of the Panjdeh affair
arrived on 8 April, and Dufferin at once promised him assistance in
arms, ammunition and possibly money, should war with Russia
follow. 18 He had received the news with a greater appearance of calm
than Dufferin had expected. 14 But he was in fact far from indifferent
to what was going forward. The English mission had assured him
that the Russians never would dare to attack his forces an idea that
must have been confirmed by the Russian treatment of Sher 'Ali in
1 Hansard, 3rd series, CCXCVI, 1159. 399,
: De Giers to de Staal, 28 April, 1885 (Meyendorff, op. cit. I, 204).
• Granville to de Staal, 24 April, 1885 (F. 0. 65-1241); Hansard, 3rd series, ccxcvII, 657.
• Granville to Thornton, 9 May, 1885 (F. 0. 65-1242).
• Meyendorff, op. cit. 1, 215.
Fitzmaurice, op. cit. 11, 442.
? Cf. Meyendorff, op. cit. 1, 211.
8 Idem, 1, 2:6-19, 222-4.
• Idem, I, 260
10 Cf. idem, I, 237.
.
1,
11 Pari. Papers, 1884-5, LXXXVII, 239
13 Idem, LXXXVII, 242.
11 Idem.
'14 Idem.
## p. 426 (#466) ############################################
426
CENTRAL ASIA, 1858–1918
>
1878. But the Russians had attacked, the English mission had hur-
riedly withdrawn, Great Britain had not declared war on Russia,
Though Abd-ur-rahman “was not a man to get excited, and therefore
took the matter calmly as a lesson for the future”, it must have been
clear to him that neither empire was ever likely to fight on behalf of
Afghan interests, and that it would be wholly wrong to base his policy
on such expectations.
In the following year, 1886, the Afghan boundary from the Oxus
westwards to Zulfikar was at last formally laid down. This was
followed by six years of comparative quiet, until the revival of dis-
putes regarding the Pamirs. British officers were arrested in territory
which they averred was not Russian. Russian agents visited Chitral;
and Russian detachments entered territory in the actual occupation
of the Afghans. In the middle of 1892 the Russian Foreign Office and
War Office agreed to seek to establish Russian dominion over the
whole of the Pamirs. The appointment of a commission of delimita-
tion had already been proposed, and discussions were going forward.
These were therefore deliberately slackened off, mainly in consequence
of the demands of the Russian War Office, 5 and no agreement was
reached till 1895, when on 11 March an agreement was signed by
which Afghanistan was to surrender territory north of the Panjah
while Bokhara surrendered that part of Darwaz lying south of the
Oxus.
This settlement left no further room for disputes concerning the
Afghan boundaries, and the years that followed were marked by a
gradual relaxation of the Anglo-Russian tension, though this was
more perceptible in Europe than in Asia, and was accompanied by
spasms of vehement distrust at Tashkent and Calcutta. The far-
Eastern ambitions which Russia now displayed did not provoke in
English minds the intimate alarm which had been created by her
earlier activity in Central Asia, so that the clashes of policy revealed
in connection with the Treaty of Simonoseki, the Russo-Japanese
War, and the Anglo-Japanese alliance, hardly carried those possi-
bilities of war which had been implicit in the incident of Panjdeh.
Nevertheless, the representatives of both nations in Central Asia long
continued to believe the worst of the other's designs and vehemently
strove to counteract them.
Relations with Kashmir, with Tibet, and with Afghanistan therefore
still provided ready, but less serious, subjects of contention. Of
Kashmir what can usefully be said has been given elsewhere; but
Tibet afforded ground for an animated struggle between the home
and Indian governments, regarding the proper action to be taken
1 Abd-ur-rahman, op. cit. I, 243:
: Holdich, The Indian Borderland, pp. 169 599.
• Meyendorff, op. cit. 11, 157; Abd-ur-rahman, op. cit. 1, 285; Roberts, op. cit. 11, 446.
• Meyendorff, op. cit. 11, 176.
6 Idem, 11, 209, 224.
. Parl. Papers, 1895, cix, 159; 1905, LVII, 457.
## p. 427 (#467) ############################################
TIBET
427
a
upon the alleged Russian intrigue. At the close of the nineteenth
century the internal position of Tibet was unstable. The chief
authority of the state (a nominal dependency of China) was vested
in the Darai Lama of Lhasa, but for a prolonged period no Dalai
Lama had reached years of maturity, each in turn perishing at a
convenient age which permitted the Council of Regency to continue
unbroken the exercise of its temporary powers. At last, however,
a Dalai Lama, under the artful guidance of a Russian subject, a Buriat
named Dorjieff, succeeded in growing up and assuming the tradi.
tional
powers
of his office. This revolution demanded external support
for its maintenance.
• Roberts, op. cit. 11, 254; cf. Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 375-6.
• Roberts, op. cit. 11, 192 599. ; Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 361.
• Lady G. Cecil, op. cit. 11, 375.
? Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 376 sqq.
$ Cf. idem, p. 408.
cit.
## p. 421 (#459) ############################################
ABD-UR-RAHMAN
421
clear-minded. He looked the personification of watchful strength
moved by an inflexible will, and hadindeed inherited his grandfather's,
Dost Muhammad's, vigour, judgment and ferocity. In 1880, after
many discussions with the Russian governor-general, Abd-ur-rahman
obtained leave to return to Afghanistan, and set out from Tashkent
with a small party of men. Next day, as he was on the march, he
received, as he thought, a sign from God. As sometimes happens in
the Central Asian deserts,' he thought he heard a great cavalcade, to
the number of 20,000, draw level with him and gradually pass on
ahead. "By this I reasoned that God had cleared my way for me. "
Full of hope he entered Balkh, praying Allah either to overthrow the
English or to turn their hearts. As soon as Lytton heard of his
appearance, he had directed Lepel Griffin (the English political agent
at Kabul) to send him conciliatory messages, and, in spite of sus-
picions natural against one who had been long connected with
Russians, it was decided to enter into negotiations with him. But at
this stage matters were interrupted by the arrival (8 June, 1880) of
a new governor-general, Lord Ripon.
In the previous spring a general election, in the course of which
Radical speakers had made great play with Lytton's conduct of the
Afghán question, had replaced Beaconsfield by Gladstone as prime
minister, Cranbrook by Hartington at the India Office, and Salisbury
by Granville at the Foreign Office. Northbrook, who took the
Admiralty in the new cabinet, was violently opposed to the policy to
which he had been sacrificed and loudly insisted on the instant need
of surrendering every post on the further side of the hills and returning
to the old frontier line. Accordingly the evacuation of Sibi and Pishin
was promised in the queen's speech in the opening session of 1881. 6
But the zealots for retreat met with unexpected opposition from their
governor-general. Ripon had, indeed, gone out to India with a strong
bias against Lytton and all his works. He had on arrival ransacked
the records of the political department in the hope of finding schemes
that would have blasted for ever the reputations of Lytton and
Beaconsfield. ? But in fact he had taken over the negotiations with
Abd-ur-rahman at the point where Lytton had laid them down and
conducted them to the conclusion at which Lytton had already aimed.
Under his orders Griffin reached an understanding with Abd-ur-
rahman by which Pishin and Sibi were retained, and by which the new
amirplaced the management of his foreign relations under the Govern-
ment of India, in return for which the Indian Government promised
to pay the amir an annual subsidy. 8 Abd-ur-rahman had already
1 Cf. Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 439; Sir Alfred Lyall, ap. Edinburgh Review, April, 1889;
Gray, At the Court of the Amir, p. 158.
· Cf. Marco Polo, Travels (ed. Yule and Cordier), 1, 197.
• Abd-ur-rahman, op. cit. 1, 155599.
• Idem, 1, 192, 194; Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 412, 428 sqq.
• Wolf
, Life of Ripon, 11, 40, 48.
* Idem, 11, 12, 19.
• Memorandum of conversations, 31 July-1 August, 1880 (F. O. 65-1104).
• Idem, 1, 190.
## p. 421 (#460) ############################################
420
CENTRAL ASIA, 1858–1918
had strongly desired the establishment of a British mission, but had
contemplated its residence at Herat, not at Kabul. Yakub, however,
had himself proposed Kabul, willing to run any risk provided he
could secure the support of the British army. The proposal was
accepted with some misgivings. Cavagnari, resolute and forceful,
was named resident-an admirable man in a crisis, but less suited for
a position of delicacy. He reached Kabul on 24 July. He was well
received with an Afghan rendering of God save the Queen. On
3 September he was murdered in the course of a real or pretended
mutiny of unpaid troops. Roberts's opinion, probably correct, was
that Yakub intended a demonstration which should show his inability
to protect the mission and so obtain its withdrawal. Events had
shown that Lytton had been unlucky in finding himself virtually
obliged to adopt Yakub as Sher 'Ali's successor, and unwise in
agreeing to the mission's being placed at Kabul and in selecting
Cavagnari as his agent there.
This misfortune led necessarily to a renewal of the campaign.
Roberts advanced by the Kurram Pass and occupied Kabul on
7 October. Yakub had joined him on the march, declaring that he
would rather be a grass-cutter with the English than attempt to rule
the Afghans. Roberts's swift movement disconcerted the tribesmen,
and though his cantonments were attacked, he had small difficulty
in holding his position through the following winter. Meanwhile the
political problem demanded solution. All agreed that Yakub should
not be restored. He was removed to India, pensioned, and resided at
Dehra Dun till his death in 1923. As no suitable candidate for the
amirat could be found, both Lytton and the home government inclined
to a policy of disintegration. The Foreign Office even began negotia-
tions with Teheran about the terms on which Persia might be suffered
to occupy. Herat, while a representative of the old Sadozai house,
Wali Sher 'Ali Khan, was recognised as sardar of Kandahar. ? Since
this arrangement, together with the occupation of the territory assigned
by Yakub, would secure the line of advance upon Herat whenever
necessary, and outflank any hostile advance from Kabul towards
India, it was thought that it did not greatly matter who held Kabul. 8
These tentative arrangements, however, were quickly brought to an
end by an unexpected and very fortunate development. Ever since
Sher 'Ali's establishment in power in 1868, his nephew, Abd-ur-
rahman, had been living under Russian protection, mainly at
Samarkand. He was now a man of forty-short and stoutly built,
with bluff but pleasant manners and an easy smile, self-possessed,
1 Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 336.
2 Forrest, op. cit. p. 494.
3 Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 342 599.
• Roberts, op. cit. 11, 254; cf. Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 375-6.
• Roberts, op. cit. 11, 192 sqq. ; Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 361.
o Lady G. Cecil, op. cit. 11, 375.
· Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 376 sqq.
$ Cf. idem, p. 408.
## p. 421 (#461) ############################################
ABD-UR-RAHMAN
421
clear-minded. He looked the personification of watchful strength
moved by an inflexible will, and had indeed inherited his grandfather's,
Dost Muhammad's, vigour, judgment and ferocity. In 1880, after
many discussions with the Russian governor-general, Abd-ur-rahman
obtained leave to return to Afghanistan, and set out from Tashkent
with a small party of men. Next day, as he was on the march, he
received, as he thought, a sign from God. As sometimes happens in
the Central Asian deserts, 2 he thought he heard a great cavalcade, to
the number of 20,000, draw level with him and gradually pass on
ahead. “By this I reasoned that God had cleared my way for me. "
Full of hope he entered Balkh, praying Allah either to overthrow the
English or to turn their hearts. •' As soon as Lytton heard of his
appearance, he had directed Lepel Griffin (the English political agent
at Kabul) to send him conciliatory messages, and, in spite of sus-
picions natural against one who had been long connected with
Russians, it was decided to enter into negotiations with him. But at
this stage matters were interrupted by the arrival (8 June, 1880) of
a new governor-general, Lord Ripon.
In the previous spring a general election, in the course of which
Radical speakers had made great play with Lytton's conduct of the
Afghán question, had replaced Beaconsfield by Gladstone as prime
minister, Cranbrook by Hartington at the India Office, and Salisbury
by Granville at the Foreign Office. Northbrook, who took the
Admiralty in the new cabinet, was violently opposed to the policy to
which he had been sacrificed and loudly insisted on the instant need
of surrendering every post on the further side of the hills and returning
to the old frontier line. Accordingly the evacuation of Sibi and Pishin
was promised in the queen's speech in the opening session of 1881. 6
But the zealots for retreat met with unexpected opposition from their
governor-general. Ripon had, indeed, gone out to India with a strong
bias against Lytton and all his works. He had on arrival ransacked
the records of the political department in the hope of finding schemes
that would have blasted for ever the reputations of Lytton and
Beaconsfield. ' But in fact he had taken over the negotiations with
Abd-ur-rahman at the point where Lytton had laid them down and
conducted them to the conclusion at which Lytton had already aimed.
Under his orders Griffin reached an understanding with Abd-ur-
rahman by which Pishin and Sibi were retained, and by which the new
amir placed the management of his foreign relations under the Govern-
ment of India, in return for which the Indian Government promised
to pay the amir an annual subsidy. 8 Abd-ur-rahman had already
1 Cf. Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. p. 439; Sir Alfred Lyall, ap. Edinburgh Review, April, 1889;
Gray, At the Court of the Amir, p: 158.
: Cf. Marco Polo, Travels (ed. Yule and Cordier), 1, 197.
Abd-ur-rahman, op. cit. I, 155599.
• Idem, 1, 190.
• Idem, 1, 192, 194; Lady B. Balfour, op. cit. pp. 412, 428 599.
• Wolf, Life of Ripon, 11, 40, 48.
° Idem, 11, 12, 19.
• Memorandum of conversations, 31 July-1 August, 1880 (F. O. 65-1104).
## p. 422 (#462) ############################################
422
CENTRAL ASIA, 1858–1918
given evidence of his real desire for English friendship. When in July,
1880, Ayub Khan, Sher 'Ali's son, had attacked Burrows, commanding
the English force at Kandahar, inflicting on him a severe defeat at
Maiwand, the amir had promptly dispatched letters to all the chiefs
on the route by which Roberts was to march from Kabul to retrieve
the situation, directing them to afford the English all possible as-
sistance; and this explains at least in part the case with which Roberts
effected his famous march from Kabul to Kandahar, leading to the
complete defeat of Ayub Khan's forces. When, therefore, Ripon was
called upon to give effect to the declared policy of the liberal cabinet,
he told Hartington bluntly that it would lead in ten years' time to
another Afghan war, and broadly hinted that he would rather resign
than overrule his council in order to carry out what he regarded as
a mistaken policy. The cabinet accordingly permitted its declara-
tions to fall into a convenient if dishonest oblivion.
The settlement thus reached brought to a close a most dangerous
phase of the Central Asian question. Lytton may be blamed for his
provocative handling of the proposal to establish an Afghan mission
and for his selection at a later time of a too sanguine agent to conduct
British relations with the amir Yakub. But he had inherited a position
of extreme difficulty. Argyll's decision of 1873 had already convinced
Sher 'Ali that he had nothing to hope for from the English; while he
fancied from their previous conduct that he had nothing to fear from
them either. Accordingly he had turned to Russia. Lytton had to
disabuse him of his error. Probably Lytton was right in thinking that
nothing short of war would do so. In any case war was made in-
evitable by the Russian action in the crisis of 1878. Stolietoff's
embassy imperatively demanded the submission or destruction of
Sher 'Ali. In view of the developments of the following ten years, the
policy adopted by Salisbury and Lytton was justified in its broad
outlines.
Nor does the second Afghan War afford a parallel with the
first except in superficial aspects. Both, of course, illustrate the ease
with which Afghanistan may be occupied and the difficulty with
which it can be held. But the first ended with the mere restoration
of the ruler whom the British had dethroned, with no advantage
military or political or diplomatic. The second replaced a hostile by
a friendly amir; it brought to a decisive end the disastrous policy of
Lawrence and Argyll; and it provided India, for the first time since
the collapse of the Moghul Empire, with a position from which the
north-west frontier could easily be defended.
Up to this time the Russian frontier had not pressed too closely on
Afghanistan. But now Russia, taking advantage of the numerous
external difficulties of the Gladstone government, and fortified by a
1 Cf. Kabul Diary, week ending 8 August, 1880 (F. O. 65-1104).
2 Wolf, op. cit. II, 39;
: Cf. Davies, The North-West Frontier, pp. 10 599.
## p. 423 (#463) ############################################
RUSSIA AND GLADSTONE
423
secret treaty with Germany, thought the time had come for abandoning
intentions which had been the subject in the past of repeated declara-
tions. The Merv oasis afforded the first example. It is likely that the
strategic importance of this region had been greatly exaggerated by
persons suffering from what the Duke of Argyll (with school-boy
humour) was pleased to call "mervousness”. ? It was, however, in
disagreeable proximity to Herat, and on several occasions the British
Foreign Office had sought reassurances regarding its future. In 1882
these were repeated. De Giers assured the British ambassador in a
conversation, not once but repeatedly, that the mission of Russia was
one of peace and that she had no intention whatever of occupying
fresh territory3 Within three months British agents were possessed
of documents showing that the Russians were seeking the submission
of the Meiv chiefs, and in fact, at the moment when the Russian
foreign minister was soothing the British ambassador, the Merv
chieftains were being urged and bribed to submit. Finally, early in
1884, when Mr Gladstone was embarrassed by the Mahdi in the
Sudan, the chiefs were beguiled and coerced into tendering allegiance
to the emperor, while the War Office at St Petersburg prepared a map
showing the Merv boundaries stretching southwards and touching
the Hari-rud near Herat. As Curzon said, “the flame of diplomatic
protest blazed fiercely forth in England; but, after a momentary
combustion, was as usual extinguished by a flood of excuses from the
inexhaustible reservoirs of the Neva”. ?
This event created such general uneasiness that the liberal govern-
ment could not leave matters where they stood. Conversations,
which had been begun in London as early as 1882,8 led to a reference
to St Petersburg. ' But although the imperial government regarded
Gladstone with a singular benevolence, 10 the operation of that senti-
ment was certainly limited by the need of taking the utmost advantage
of his tenure of office. While, therefore, it was willing enough to approve
the idea of formally defining the northern boundary of Afghanistan,
it also began to refer casually to Panjdeh and the need of establishing
peace in that area. 11 Granville eagerly took up the idea of a joint
delimitation; an Indiaiofficial, Sir Peter Lumsden, was appointed
to conduct the British mission, the amir was invited to provide
qualified officers, and Granville proposed that the British and Russian
missions should meet at Saraks on 1 October, 1884. 12 He thus
assumed that Russia really intended to co-operate. But for that the
Russian leaders did not yet deem the time to be ripe. They certainly
1 Curzon, op. cit. p. 120.
2 The Eastern Question, II, 371.
• Parl. Papers, 1884, LXXXVII, 77.
• Idem, p. 95; cf. Baddeley, Russia in the Eighties, p. 129.
• Curzon, op. cit. p. 111.
• Parl. Papers, 1884, LXXXVII, 183; 1884-5, LXXXVII, 38, 40, 41, 47, 49.
? Curzon, op. cit. p. 111.
& Parl. Papers, 1884, LXXXVII, 66.
10 Meyendorff, Correspondance de M. de Staal, i, 27.
11 Parl. Papers, 1884-5, LXXXVII, 60, 63, 75. 12 Idem, pp. 78, 96, 111.
• Idem, p. 70.
## p. 424 (#464) ############################################
424
CENTRAL ASIA, 1858–1918
aimed at securing positions which would place under their control
the entire body of nomad Turkoman tribes. Therefore, while they
named General Zelenoi head of the Russian boundary mission, they
also smote him with illness and insisted that on his recovery he must
have a prolonged period in which to study his instructions and gather
information. By that time climatic conditions would make surveying
impossible, so that nothing could be done till February, 1885, at
soonest. In December, as time was passing, the Russian ambassador
was ordered to seek British assent to the essential points of the Russian
proposals, which now claimed Panjdeh as independent of the amir.
At the same time, in order to cover the Russian movements, complaints
were made of aggressive Afghan concentrations. 2 Granville claimed
that the definition of Afghan territory should be left to the commission. 3
To this De Giers would not agree, and claimed districts which the
British declared to belong to Afghanistan. “ By April the discussions
had reached a deadlock. Lumsden, who had gone with his mission
into north-western Afghanistan, had already reported repeated ag-
gressions on the part of the Russian rilitary forces. Then when the
telegraph line from Meshed was conveniently interrupted, belated
news reached London on 9 April that the Russians on 30 March had
attacked a body of Afghan troops and driven them out of Panjdeh. 8
Mr Gladstone's position was most difficult. Gordon's death at
Khartum had cast great odium upon his policy. The Irish question
was looming up ominous and unsettled. A new humiliation would
certainly terminate his tenure of office. So, though personally desiring
war no more than Disraeli had done in 1878, he was driven by circum-
stances into assuming a defiant attitude. He called up the reserves
and moved a vote of credit for special military preparations. De Giers
had contemplated carrying his point by bluff. He had even wired the
Russian ambassador for the information of the English cabinet that
the Afghan commandant at Panjdeh had lamented his inability to
comply with the Russian demands because the English officers forbade
him. But on the news of the vote of credit he withdrew his telegram. '
The ambassador, de Staal, who laboured for peace at this crisis, made
unofficial proposals which would, he hoped, assist the liberals to retain
office at the cost of something less than war. 10 Nor did the Russian
Government desire war-if it could attain its objects without. On the
English side it was proposed that even if Abd-ur-rahman had to give
up Panjdeh, he should at least retain Zulfikar. As the Russians set
a high value upon the first and none upon the second," and as the
English public was completely ignorant of Central Asian geography,
1 Parl. Papers, 1884-5, LXXXVII, p. 121.
2 Idem, p. 149.
3 Idem, p. 151.
• Idem, pp. 175. 599.
6 Idem, p. 230.
& Idem, pp. 184, 198; cf. his dispatches, ap. F. 0, 65-1235, 1236, 1237, 1238.
? Parl. Papers, 1884-5, LXXXVII, p. 231.
8 Cf. Holdich, The Indian Borderland, pp. 127 899.
• Meyendorff, op. cit. I, 200, 201.
10 Idem, i, 189 399.
11 Idem, 1, 191.
1
## p. 425 (#465) ############################################
PANJDEH
425
the ministry was able to represent this as a graceful concession to
English wishes. As regards the attack upon Panjdeh, which in the
first flush of resentment and alarm Gladstone had characterised as
"an unprovoked aggression”,1 the emperor refused emphatically to
admit the least enquiry into the conduct of the commander, General
Kumarof;a but suggestions were put about that the question whether
Russia had violated her understanding with Great Britain might be
referred to the head of a friendly state. The arbitrator Granville had
in mind was the German emperor, since his character and experience
would give great weight to his decision. Russia, perhaps for the same
reasons, insisted that the choice must fall on no one but the King of
Denmark. 5 This too was conceded, and Gladstone was thus freed
to apply his supple tongue to soothing the passions which his political
position had for the moment compelled him to encourage and even
to simulate. ? But all his dexterity could not completely hide the
natyre of his settlement, even from his own countrymen. The Russian
Foreign Office became of course yet more exigent. When Granville
accepted the general principles laid down by Russia earlier in the year,
he found himself confronted by new and more stringent demands,
inspired by the Russian War Office. In June the Gladstone ministry
fell, and Lord Salisbury then took over the negotiations. After pro-
longed and difficult discussions regarding the area which was covered
by the name “Zulfikar”, a protocol was at last signed on 10 Septem-
ber, and the projected arbitration, which had served Gladstone's turn
well enough, was allowed to lapse. 10
As a result of the discussions initiated in 1884 regarding the Afghan
boundaries and the appointment of a commission of delimitation,
Amir Abd-ur-rahman had been invited to confer with the new
governor-general, Lord Dufferin, at Rawulpindi; and he was actually
there when the Panjdeh crisis emerged. Even before the incident the
English ministry had anxiously sought to moderate his claims, 11 and
he then seemed to regard the Pass of Zulfikar, Gulran and Maruchak
as the only places of vital importance. 12 News of the Panjdeh affair
arrived on 8 April, and Dufferin at once promised him assistance in
arms, ammunition and possibly money, should war with Russia
follow. 18 He had received the news with a greater appearance of calm
than Dufferin had expected. 14 But he was in fact far from indifferent
to what was going forward. The English mission had assured him
that the Russians never would dare to attack his forces an idea that
must have been confirmed by the Russian treatment of Sher 'Ali in
1 Hansard, 3rd series, CCXCVI, 1159. 399,
: De Giers to de Staal, 28 April, 1885 (Meyendorff, op. cit. I, 204).
• Granville to de Staal, 24 April, 1885 (F. 0. 65-1241); Hansard, 3rd series, ccxcvII, 657.
• Granville to Thornton, 9 May, 1885 (F. 0. 65-1242).
• Meyendorff, op. cit. 1, 215.
Fitzmaurice, op. cit. 11, 442.
? Cf. Meyendorff, op. cit. 1, 211.
8 Idem, 1, 2:6-19, 222-4.
• Idem, I, 260
10 Cf. idem, I, 237.
.
1,
11 Pari. Papers, 1884-5, LXXXVII, 239
13 Idem, LXXXVII, 242.
11 Idem.
'14 Idem.
## p. 426 (#466) ############################################
426
CENTRAL ASIA, 1858–1918
>
1878. But the Russians had attacked, the English mission had hur-
riedly withdrawn, Great Britain had not declared war on Russia,
Though Abd-ur-rahman “was not a man to get excited, and therefore
took the matter calmly as a lesson for the future”, it must have been
clear to him that neither empire was ever likely to fight on behalf of
Afghan interests, and that it would be wholly wrong to base his policy
on such expectations.
In the following year, 1886, the Afghan boundary from the Oxus
westwards to Zulfikar was at last formally laid down. This was
followed by six years of comparative quiet, until the revival of dis-
putes regarding the Pamirs. British officers were arrested in territory
which they averred was not Russian. Russian agents visited Chitral;
and Russian detachments entered territory in the actual occupation
of the Afghans. In the middle of 1892 the Russian Foreign Office and
War Office agreed to seek to establish Russian dominion over the
whole of the Pamirs. The appointment of a commission of delimita-
tion had already been proposed, and discussions were going forward.
These were therefore deliberately slackened off, mainly in consequence
of the demands of the Russian War Office, 5 and no agreement was
reached till 1895, when on 11 March an agreement was signed by
which Afghanistan was to surrender territory north of the Panjah
while Bokhara surrendered that part of Darwaz lying south of the
Oxus.
This settlement left no further room for disputes concerning the
Afghan boundaries, and the years that followed were marked by a
gradual relaxation of the Anglo-Russian tension, though this was
more perceptible in Europe than in Asia, and was accompanied by
spasms of vehement distrust at Tashkent and Calcutta. The far-
Eastern ambitions which Russia now displayed did not provoke in
English minds the intimate alarm which had been created by her
earlier activity in Central Asia, so that the clashes of policy revealed
in connection with the Treaty of Simonoseki, the Russo-Japanese
War, and the Anglo-Japanese alliance, hardly carried those possi-
bilities of war which had been implicit in the incident of Panjdeh.
Nevertheless, the representatives of both nations in Central Asia long
continued to believe the worst of the other's designs and vehemently
strove to counteract them.
Relations with Kashmir, with Tibet, and with Afghanistan therefore
still provided ready, but less serious, subjects of contention. Of
Kashmir what can usefully be said has been given elsewhere; but
Tibet afforded ground for an animated struggle between the home
and Indian governments, regarding the proper action to be taken
1 Abd-ur-rahman, op. cit. I, 243:
: Holdich, The Indian Borderland, pp. 169 599.
• Meyendorff, op. cit. 11, 157; Abd-ur-rahman, op. cit. 1, 285; Roberts, op. cit. 11, 446.
• Meyendorff, op. cit. 11, 176.
6 Idem, 11, 209, 224.
. Parl. Papers, 1895, cix, 159; 1905, LVII, 457.
## p. 427 (#467) ############################################
TIBET
427
a
upon the alleged Russian intrigue. At the close of the nineteenth
century the internal position of Tibet was unstable. The chief
authority of the state (a nominal dependency of China) was vested
in the Darai Lama of Lhasa, but for a prolonged period no Dalai
Lama had reached years of maturity, each in turn perishing at a
convenient age which permitted the Council of Regency to continue
unbroken the exercise of its temporary powers. At last, however,
a Dalai Lama, under the artful guidance of a Russian subject, a Buriat
named Dorjieff, succeeded in growing up and assuming the tradi.
tional
powers
of his office. This revolution demanded external support
for its maintenance.
