APPENDICES

APPENDIX I

NAMES OF STATIONS ON THE ORENBURG-TASHKENT
RAILWAY

APPENDIX II—(A)

LIST OF STATIONS FROM TASHKENT TO MERV, WITH
DISTANCES FROM KRASNOVODSK AND TASHKENT

Name of Station. Distance from
Krasnovodsk.		 Distance from
Tashkent.
Versts. Versts.
(1) Tashkent 1747
(2) Kauffmanskaya 1721 26
(3) Vrevskaya 1698 51
(4) Syr-Darinskaya 1672 75
(5) Golodnaya Steppe 1637 110
(6) Chernaievo 1605 142
(7) Obrutchevo 1557 190
(8) Lomakino 1548 199
(9) Jizak 1522 225
(10) Milyutinskaya 1498 249
(11) Kuropatkino 1473 274
(12) Rostovtsevo 1445 302
(13) Samarkand 1415 332
(14) Djuma 1394 353
(15) Nagornaya 1365 382
(16) Katta-Kurgan 1343 404
(17) Zirabulak 1316 431
(18) Ziadin 1291 446
(19) Kermine 1269 478
(20) Malik 1243 504
(21) Kizil-Teppe 1223 524
(22) Kuyu-Mazar 1206 541
(23) Kagan 1182 565
(24) Murgak 1160 587
(25) Yakatut 1142 605
(26) Kara-Kul 1117 630
(27) Khodja-Davlet 1098 649
(28) Farab 1078 669
(29) Charjui 1070 677
(30) Barkhani 1038 709
(31) Karaul-Kuyu 1020 727
(32) Repetek 1003 744
(33) Pesski 970 777
(34) Utch-Adja 954 793
(35) Ravnina 924 823
(36) Annenkovo 904 843
(37) Kurban-Kala 885 862
(38) Bairam-Ali 869 878
(39) Merv 842 905

APPENDIX II—(B)

MURGHAB VALLEY RAILWAY
LIST OF STATIONS FROM MERV TO KUSHKINSKI POST
WITH DISTANCES FROM KRASNOVODSK AND MERV

Station.Height above
Caspian Sea.		Distance from
Merv.		Distance from
Krasnovodsk.
Sagenes.Versts.Versts.
Merv118.01—842
Talkhatan Baba127.0637879
Yulatan134.1656898
Sultan-i-Band139.5576918
Imam Baba148.60120962
Sari Yazi155.57157999
Tash Kepri164.001971039
Kala-i-Mor202.072441086
Kushkinski Post303.042931135

APPENDIX III

Kishlak, a village of sedentary Turcomans, as opposed to Aoul, the nomad village.

Mekteb, the lower-class Mussulman elementary school.

Medresse, university of a theological order.

Arik, canal or channel diverted from river for irrigation purposes.

TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS

1 sagene= 7 ft.
1 dessiatine (= 2400 sq. sagenes)= 432 sq. roods (2.70 acres)
1 square sagene= 49 sq. ft.
1 arshine= .77 yard (2.33 ft.)
1 vershok= 1.75 in.

A dessiatine (land measure) is a parallelogram having a length of 80 sagenes and a breadth of 30 sagenes, or it may be 40 by 60 sagenes, therefore the dessiatine is 2400 square sagenes, or 21,600 square arshines.

1 verst = ⅔ of an English mile.

APPENDIX IV

THE TREATY OF GANDAMAK

Treaty between the British Government and his Highness Mahommed Yakub Khan, Amir of Afghanistan and its dependencies, concluded at Gandamak on the 26th May, 1879, by his Highness the Amir Mahommed Yakub Khan on his own part and on the part of the British Government by Major (afterwards Sir Louis) P. L. N. Cavagnari, C.S.I.

(1) From the day of the exchange of the ratifications of the present Treaty there shall be perpetual peace and friendship between the British Government on the one part and his Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its dependencies, and his successors, on the other.

(2) His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its dependencies engages, on the exchange of the ratifications of this Treaty, to publish a full and complete amnesty, absolving all his subjects from any responsibility for intercourse with the British forces during the war, and to guarantee and protect all persons of whatever degree from any punishment or molestation on that account.

(3) His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its dependencies agrees to conduct his relations with Foreign States in accordance with the advice and wishes of the British Government. His Highness the Amir will enter into no engagements with Foreign States, and will not take up arms against any Foreign State, except with the concurrence of the British Government. On these conditions the British Government will support the Amir against any foreign aggression with money, arms, or troops, to be employed in whatsoever manner the British Government may judge best for this purpose. Should British troops at any time enter Afghanistan for the purpose of repelling foreign aggression, they will return to their stations in British territory as soon as the object for which they entered has been accomplished.

(4) With a view to the maintenance of the direct and intimate relations now established between the British Government and his Highness the Amir of Afghanistan, and for the better protection of the frontiers of his Highness’s dominion, it is agreed that a British Representative shall reside at Kabul, with a suitable escort, in a place of residence appropriate to his rank and dignity. It is also agreed that the British Government shall have the right to depute British Agents with suitable escorts to the Afghan frontiers, whensoever this may be considered necessary by the British Government in the interests of both States, on the occurrence of any important external fact. His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan may on his part depute an Agent to reside at the Court of his Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, and at such other places in British India as may be similarly agreed upon.

(5) His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its dependencies guarantees the personal safety and honourable treatment of British Agents within his jurisdiction; and the British Government on its part undertakes that its Agents shall never in any way interfere with the internal administration of his Highness’s dominions.

(6) His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its dependencies undertakes, on behalf of himself and his successors, to offer no impediment to British subjects peacefully trading within his dominions so long as they do so with the permission of the British Government, and in accordance with such arrangements as may be mutually agreed upon from time to time between the two Governments.

(7) In order that the passage of trade between the territories of the British Government and of his Highness the Amir of Afghanistan may be open and uninterrupted, his Highness the Amir of Afghanistan agrees to use his best endeavours to ensure the protection of traders and to facilitate the transit of goods along the well-known customary roads of Afghanistan. These roads shall be improved and maintained in such manner as the two Governments may decide to be most expedient for the general convenience of traffic, and under such financial arrangements as may be mutually determined upon between them. The arrangements made for the maintenance and security of the aforesaid roads, for the settlement of the duties to be levied upon merchandise carried over these roads, and for the general protection and development of trade with and through the dominions of his Highness, will be stated in a separate Commercial Treaty, to be concluded within one year, due regard being given to the state of the country.

(8) With a view to facilitate communications between the allied Governments and to aid and develop intercourse and commercial relations between the two countries, it is hereby agreed that a line of telegraph from Kurram to Kabul shall be constructed by and at the cost of the British Government, and the Amir of Afghanistan hereby undertakes to provide for the protection of this telegraph line.

(9) In consideration of the renewal of a friendly alliance between the two States which has been attested and secured by the foregoing Articles, the British Government restores to his Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its dependencies the towns of Kandahar and Jelalabad with all the territory now in possession of the British armies, excepting the districts of Kurram, Pishin, and Sibi. His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its dependencies agrees on his part that the districts of Kurram and Pishin and Sibi, according to the limits defined in the schedule annexed, shall remain under the protection and administrative control of the British Government: that is to say, the aforesaid districts shall be treated as assigned districts, and shall not be considered as permanently severed from the limits of the Afghan kingdom. The revenues of these districts, after deducting the charges of civil administration, shall be paid to his Highness the Amir.

The British Government will retain in its own hands the control of the Khyber and Michni Passes, which lie between the Peshawar and Jelalabad districts, and of all relations with the independent tribes of the territory directly connected with these passes.

(10) For the further support of his Highness the Amir in the recovery and maintenance of his legitimate authority, and in consideration of the efficient fulfilment in their entirety of the engagements stipulated by the foregoing Articles, the British Government agrees to pay to his Highness the Amir and to his successors an annual subsidy of six lakhs of Rupees.

Done at Gandamak, this 26th day of May 1879, corresponding with the 4th day of the month of Jamadi-us-sani, 1296 A.H.

AMIR MAHOMMED YAKUB KHAN.
N. CAVAGNARI, Major.

Letter, dated June 14, 1880, from Mr. (afterwards Sir Lepel) Griffin to Abdur Rahman Khan.

(After compliments.)

“I am commanded to convey to you the replies of the Government of India to the questions you have asked.

“First, with regard to the position of the ruler of Kabul in relation to Foreign Powers. Since the British Government admit no right of interference by Foreign Powers in Afghanistan, and since both Russia and Persia are pledged to abstain from all political interference with Afghan affairs, it is plain that the Kabul ruler can have no political relations with any Foreign Power except the English: and if any such Foreign Power should attempt to interfere in Afghanistan, and if such interference should lead to unprovoked aggression on the Kabul ruler, then the British Government will be prepared to aid him, if necessary, to repel it, provided that he follows the advice of the British Government in regard to his external relations.

“Secondly, with regard to limits of territory, I am directed to say that the whole province of Kandahar has been placed under a separate ruler, except Pishin and Sibi, which are retained in British possession. Consequently, the Government is not able to enter into any negotiations with you on these points, nor in respect to arrangements with regard to the north-west frontier, which were concluded with the ex-Amir Mahommed Yakub Khan. With these reservations, the British Government are willing that you should establish over Afghanistan (including Herat, the possession of which cannot be guaranteed to you, though the Government are not disposed to hinder measures which you may take to obtain possession of it) as complete and extensive authority as has hitherto been exercised by any Amir of your family. The British Government desires to exercise no interference in the internal affairs of these territories, nor will you be required to admit an English Resident anywhere; although, for convenience of ordinary and friendly intercourse between two adjoining States, it may be advisable to station by agreement a Mahommedan agent of the British Government at Kabul.”

From Amir Abdur Rahman Khan to Mr. Griffin, dated June 22, 1880.

(After compliments.)

“Regarding the boundaries of Afghanistan which were settled by treaty with my most noble and respected grandfather, Amir Dost Muhammad, these you have granted to me. And the Envoy which you have appointed in Afghanistan you have dispensed with, but what you have left to (be settled according to) my wish is, that I may keep a Mussulman Ambassador, if I please. This was my desire and that of my people, and this you have kindly granted.

“About my friendly relations and communication with Foreign Powers, you have written that I should not have any without advice and consultation with you (the British). You should consider well that if I have the friendship of a great Government like yours, how can I communicate with another Power without advice from and consultation with you? I agree to this also.

“You have also kindly written that should any unwarranted (improper) attack be made by any other Power on Afghanistan, you will under all circumstances afford me assistance; and you will not permit any other person to take possession of the territory of Afghanistan. This also is my desire, which you have kindly granted.

“As to what you have written about Herat. Herat is at present in the possession of my cousin. So long as he does not oppose me, and remains friendly with me, it is better that I should leave my cousin in Herat, rather than any other man. Should he oppose me, and not listen to my words (advice) or those of my people, I will afterwards let you know. Everything shall be done as we both deem it expedient and advisable.

“All the kindness you have shown is for my welfare and that of my people: how should I not accept it? You have shown very great kindness to me and my people.”

Letter from Mr. Griffin to Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, dated “July 1880.”[45]

(After compliments.)

“His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General in Council has learnt with pleasure that your Highness has proceeded toward Kabul, in accordance with the invitation of the British Government. Therefore, in consideration of the friendly sentiments by which your Highness is animated, and of the advantage to be derived by the Sirdars and people from the establishment of a settled government under your Highness’s authority, the British Government recognises your Highness as Amir of Kabul.

“I am further empowered, on the part of the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, to inform your Highness that the British Government has no desire to interfere in the internal government of the territories in the possession of your Highness, and has no wish that an English Resident should be stationed anywhere within those territories. For the convenience of ordinary friendly intercourse, such as is maintained between two adjoining States, it may be advisable that a Mahommedan Agent of the British Government should reside, by agreement, at Kabul.

“Your Highness has requested that the views and intentions of the British Government with regard to the position of the ruler at Kabul in relation to Foreign Powers should be placed on record for your Highness’s information. The Viceroy and Governor-General in Council authorises me to declare to you that since the British Government admits no right of interference by Foreign Powers within Afghanistan, and since both Russia and Persia are pledged to abstain from all interference with the affairs of Afghanistan, it is plain that your Highness can have no political relations with any Foreign Power except with the British Government. If any Foreign Power should attempt to interfere in Afghanistan, and if such interference should lead to unprovoked aggression on the dominions of your Highness, in that event the British Government would be prepared to aid you, to such extent and in such manner as may appear to the British Government necessary, in repelling it; provided that your Highness follows unreservedly the advice of the British Government in regard to your external relations.”

Letter from the Viceroy of India (Marquis of Ripon) to the Amir Abdur Rahman.

(After compliments.)

“Simla, June 16, 1883.

“Your Highness will remember that, at Sir Lepel Griffin’s interview with you at Zimma on July 31, 1880, he said that the Government of India could only start your administration by giving you a grant to pay your army and officials and your immediate expenses; and that, having recognised you as Amir, it was anxious to see you strong; but after you had taken possession of Kabul, you must rely on your own resources.

“I have always interested myself so much in your Highness’s success, and have felt so great a desire for the establishment of a strong and friendly Power under your Highness’s auspices in Afghanistan, that I have on various occasions gone beyond the determination then communicated to you, and have from time to time aided your Highness with sums of money and arms, besides devoting some lakhs a year to the support of Afghan refugees and détenus, whose presence in Afghanistan is, I understand, regarded by your Highness as dangerous to your power. Still, my view of the relations to each other of the two countries has throughout been that, in matters of internal policy and finance, India should not seek to interfere with Afghanistan, but should confine herself to the part of a friendly neighbour and ally. On these conditions, it would be in accordance with the practice of nations that Afghanistan should regulate her own finance and bear her own burdens, as she has always done heretofore.

“As regards matters of external policy, your Highness was informed in the communication from the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, dated July 20, 1880, and again in my letter of February 22, 1883, that if any Foreign Power should attempt to interfere in Afghanistan, and if such interference should lead to unprovoked aggression on the dominions of your Highness, in that event the British Government would be prepared to aid you to such extent and in such manner as might appear to the British Government necessary in repelling it; provided that your Highness follows unreservedly the advice of the British Government in regard to your external relations.

“On consideration, however, of your accounts of the condition of your north-west frontier, I have been satisfied that your Highness has to contend with exceptional difficulties in that quarter. I have understood that, owing to various untoward circumstances, your Highness has not yet been able to reduce the important frontier province of Herat to the orderly and secure condition so essential for the protection of Afghanistan as a whole; and therefore that, for the settlement of the affairs of that frontier, some friendly assistance may be needful to you. I further observe, with satisfaction, your Highness’s assurances of good faith and loyalty to the British Government; and your Highness’s language convinces me that you realise how much it is to the interest of Afghanistan to maintain friendly relations with the Government of India.

“Impressed by these considerations, I have determined to offer to your Highness personally, as an aid towards meeting the present difficulties in the management of your State, a subsidy of twelve lakhs of rupees a year, payable monthly, to be devoted to the payment of your troops, and to the other measures required for the defence of your north-western frontier. I feel that I may safely trust to your Highness’s good faith and practised skill to devote this addition to your resources to objects of such vital importance as those which I have above mentioned.”

The Amir of Afghanistan to the Viceroy of India.
(Extract.)

(After compliments.)

“6th Ramazan, 1300 H. (July 11, 1883).

“I have announced the glad tidings of your Excellency’s determination, which is calculated to conduce to the well-being of the British Government and of the people of Afghanistan, and to put in order and keep going my affairs, to the people of Afghanistan at large, who all offered up thanks, saying, ‘For many years we, the Afghan nation, have been suffering from innumerable calamities. Thanks be to God that a glorious Government like this (British Government) has befriended us.’

“God willing, the people of Afghanistan will never allow their heads to swerve from the line of friendship to the illustrious British Government, and so long as I live I will not think of making friends with any one but with the illustrious British Government. I have offered my prayers to God for the (increased) glory of that powerful Government.”

The Amir’s Speech at the Rawal Pindi Durbar.

At the great Durbar held by Lord Dufferin on April 8, 1885, the Amir Abdur Rahman spoke as follows:

“In return for this kindness and favour I am ready with my arms and people to render any services that may be required of me or of the Afghan nation. As the British Government has declared that it will assist me in repelling any foreign enemy, so it is right and proper that Afghanistan should unite in the firmest manner and stand side by side with the British Government.”

Letter from Sir Mortimer Durand to Abdur Rahman, dated Kabul, November 11, 1893.

(After compliments.)

“When your Highness came to the throne of Afghanistan, Sir Lepel Griffin was instructed to give you the assurance that, if any Foreign Power should attempt to interfere in Afghanistan, and if such interference should lead to unprovoked aggression on the dominions of your Highness, in that event the British Government would be prepared to aid you to such extent and in such manner as might appear to the British Government necessary in repelling it, provided that your Highness followed unreservedly the advice of the British Government in regard to your external relations.

“I have the honour to inform your Highness that this assurance remains in force, and that it is applicable with regard to any territory which may come into your possession in consequence of the agreement which you have made with me to-day in the matter of the Oxus frontier.

“It is the desire of the British Government that such portion of the northern frontier of Afghanistan as has not yet been marked out should now be clearly defined; when this has been done, the whole of your Highness’s frontier towards the side of Russia will be equally free from doubt and equally secure.”

Agreement signed at Kabul on November 12, 1893.

Whereas the British Government has represented to his Highness the Amir that the Russian Government presses for the literal fulfilment of the Agreement of 1873 between Russia and England by which it was decided that the river Oxus should form the northern boundary of Afghanistan from Lake Victoria (Wood’s Lake) or Sarikul on the east to the junction of the Kokcha with the Oxus, and whereas the British Government considers itself bound to abide by the terms of this Agreement, if the Russian Government equally abides by them, his Highness Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, G.C.S.I., Amir of Afghanistan and its dependencies, wishing to show his friendship to the British Government and his readiness to accept their advice in matters affecting his relations with Foreign Powers, hereby agrees that he will evacuate all the districts held by him to the north of this portion of the Oxus on the clear understanding that all the districts lying to the south of this portion of the Oxus, and not now in his possession, be handed over to him in exchange. And Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, hereby declares on the part of the British Government that the transfer to his Highness the Amir of the said districts lying to the south of the Oxus is an essential part of this transaction, and undertakes that arrangements will be made with the Russian Government to carry out the transfer of the said lands to the north and south of the Oxus.

H. M. Durand.
Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.

Kabul, November 12, 1893.

Agreement between Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, G.C.S.I., and Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.

Whereas certain questions have arisen regarding the frontier of Afghanistan on the side of India, and whereas both his Highness the Amir and the Government of India are desirous of settling these questions by a friendly understanding, and of fixing the limit of their respective spheres of influence, so that for the future there may be no difference of opinion on the subject between the allied Governments, it is hereby agreed as follows:

(1) The eastern and southern frontier of his Highness’s dominions, from Wakhan to the Persian border, shall follow the line shown in the map attached to this agreement.

(2) The Government of India will at no time exercise interference in the territories lying beyond this line on the side of Afghanistan, and his Highness the Amir will at no time exercise interference in the territories lying beyond this line on the side of India.

(3) The British Government thus agrees to his Highness the Amir retaining Asmar and the valley above it, as far as Chanak. His Highness agrees, on the other hand, that he will at no time exercise interference in Swat, Bajaur, or Chitral, including the Arnawai or Bashgal valley. The British Government also agrees to leave to his Highness the Birmal tract as shown in the detailed map already given to his Highness, who relinquishes his claim to the rest of the Waziri country and Dawar. His Highness also relinquishes his claim to Chageh.

(4) The frontier line will hereafter be laid down in detail and demarcated, wherever this may be practicable and desirable, by joint British and Afghan commissioners, whose object will be to arrive by mutual understanding at a boundary which shall adhere with the greatest possible exactness to the line shown in the map attached to this agreement, having due regard to the existing local rights of villages adjoining the frontier.

(5) With reference to the question of Chaman, the Amir withdraws his objection to the new British cantonment and concedes to the British Government the rights purchased by him in the Sirkai Tilerai water. At this part of the frontier the line will be drawn as follows:

From the crest of the Khwaja Amran range near the Psha Kotal, which remains in British territory, the line will run in such a direction as to leave Murgha Chaman and the Sharobo spring to Afghanistan, and to pass half-way between the New Chaman Fort and the Afghan outpost known locally as Lashkar Dand. The line will then pass half-way between the railway station and the hill known as the Mian Baldak, and, turning southwards, will rejoin the Khwaja Amran range, leaving the Gwasha Post in British territory, and the road to Shorawak to the west and south of Gwasha in Afghanistan. The British Government will not exercise any interference within half a mile of the road.

(6) The above articles of agreement are regarded by the Government of India and his Highness the Amir of Afghanistan as a full and satisfactory settlement of all the principal differences of opinion which have arisen between them in regard to the frontier; and both the Government of India and his Highness the Amir undertake that any differences of detail, such as those which will have to be considered hereafter by the officers appointed to demarcate the boundary line, shall be settled in a friendly spirit, so as to remove for the future as far as possible all causes of doubt and misunderstanding between the two Governments.

(7) Being fully satisfied of his Highness’s goodwill to the British Government, and wishing to see Afghanistan independent and strong, the Government of India will raise no objection to the purchase and import by his Highness of munitions of war, and they will themselves grant him some help in this respect. Further, in order to mark their sense of the friendly spirit in which his Highness the Amir has entered into these negotiations, the Government of India undertake to increase by the sum of six lakhs of rupees a year the subsidy of twelve lakhs now granted to his Highness.

H. M. Durand.
Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.

Kabul, November 12, 1893.

And on March 11, 1895, the following Agreement between the Governments of Great Britain and Russia, with regard to the spheres of influence of the two countries in the region of the Pamirs, and concerning the position of Afghanistan in that region, was drawn up:

(1) The spheres of influence of Great Britain and Russia to the east of Lake Victoria (Zor Koul) shall be divided by a line which, starting from a point on that lake near to its eastern extremity, shall follow the crests of the mountain range running somewhat to the south of the latitude of the lake as far as the Bendersky and Orta Bel Passes.

From thence the line shall run along the same range while it remains to the south of the latitude of the said lake. On reaching that latitude, it shall descend a spur of the range towards Kizil Rabat on the Aksu river, if that locality is found not to be north of the latitude of Lake Victoria, and from thence it shall be prolonged, in an easterly direction, so as to meet the Chinese frontier.

If it should be found that Kizil Rabat is situated to the north of the latitude of Lake Victoria, the line of demarcation shall be drawn to the nearest convenient point on the Aksu river, south of that latitude, and from thence prolonged as aforesaid.

(2) The line shall be marked out, and its precise configuration shall be settled, by a Joint Commission of a purely technical character, with a military escort not exceeding that which is strictly necessary for its proper protection.

The Commission shall be composed of British and Russian delegates, with the necessary technical assistance.

Her Britannic Majesty’s Government will arrange with the Amir of Afghanistan as to the manner in which his Highness shall be represented on the Commission.

(3) The Commission shall also be charged to report any facts which can be ascertained on the spot bearing on the situation of the Chinese frontier, with a view to enable the two Governments to come to an agreement with the Chinese Government as to the limits of Chinese territory in the vicinity of the line, in such manner as may be found most convenient.

(4) Her Britannic Majesty’s Government and the Government of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia engage to abstain from exercising any political influence or control, the former to the north, the latter to the south, of the above line of demarcation.

(5) Her Britannic Majesty’s Government engage that the territory lying within the British sphere of influence between the Hindu Kush, and the line running from the east end of Lake Victoria to the Chinese frontier, shall form part of the territory of the Amir of Afghanistan, that it shall not be annexed to Great Britain, and that no military posts or forts shall be established in it.

The execution of this agreement is contingent upon the evacuation by the Amir of Afghanistan of all the territories now occupied by his Highness on the right bank of the Panjah, and on the evacuation by the Amir of Bokhara of the portion of Darwaz which lies to the south of the Oxus, in regard to which her Britannic Majesty’s Government, and the Government of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia, have agreed to use their influence respectively with the two Amirs.

Agreement for laying down the Afghan Boundary from the Hindu Kush Range to Nawa Kotal; and confirmed by his Highness the Amir of Afghanistan on December 19, 1895.

Agreement dated Camp Nashagam, April 9, 1895 = 13th Shawal, 1312

Forasmuch as, under Article (4) of the Convention concluded at Kabul on November 12, 1893, between his Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and Sir Mortimer Durand on behalf of the Government of India, we the undersigned have been appointed by our respective Governments for the purpose of demarcating in concert the frontier of his Highness the Amir’s dominions on the side of India in this neighbourhood of Chitrar and Bajaur, it is hereby agreed as follows:

(1) That on the western side of the Kunar River, this frontier will be the further or eastern watershed of the stream which in the idiom of Afghans is notorious and known as the Landai Sin pertaining to the limits of Kafiristan, and which in the survey map is also written by the name of Bashgal, so that all the country of which the drainage falls into the Kunar River by means of this stream belongs, and will belong, to Afghanistan, and the eastern drainage of this watershed, which does not fall into the Landai Sin stream, pertains to Chitrar.

(2) That on the eastern side of the Kunar River, from the river bank up to the crest of the main range which forms the watershed between the Kunar River and the country (lit. direction) of Barawal and Bajaur, this frontier follows the southern watershed of the Arnawai stream, which falls into the Kunar River close to the village of Arnawai, leaving to Chitrar all the country of which the drainage falls into the Kunar River, by means of this stream, while the southern drainage of this last-mentioned watershed, which does not fall into the Arnawai stream, pertains to Afghanistan.

(3) That this frontier line, on reaching the crest of the main range, which in this neighbourhood forms the watershed between the Kunar River and the country (lit. direction) of Barawal and Bajaur, turns southward along this watershed, which it follows as far as a point in the neighbourhood of the Nawa Kotal, leaving all the country draining into the Kunar River within the limits of Afghanistan, and all the country draining towards Barawal and Bajaur outside the limits of Afghanistan; but beyond the aforesaid point in the neighbourhood of the Nawa Kotal the frontier has not at present been demarcated.

(4) That on both sides of the Kunar River this frontier, as described in the three preceding articles, for the most part requires no artificial demarcation, because it is a natural boundary following the crests of mountain ranges; but since, at present, inspection in situ is impossible, when the ground is examined on the spot, it is probable that in the places where these mountain ranges abut on the Kunar River from either side, demarcation by pillars for a short distance from the water’s edge on both sides of the river will be found desirable for the purpose of separating the boundary of Afghanistan from Arnawai pertaining to Chitrar and the limits of the Kafir country (lit. Kafiristan) of the Landai Sin from Chitrar. In that case these pillars will be erected along the line of the watershed described in the first and second articles of the present agreement, subject to any slight divergencies from this line which may be necessary to protect the local rights of villages adjoining the frontier.

(5) That the frontier pillars, wherever considered desirable, will be erected hereafter by an officer of the Government of India and an officer of his Highness the Amir acting in concert.

(6) That these watersheds, forming the frontier agreed upon as described in the first three articles of the present agreement, have been marked by a red line on the survey map attached to this agreement, which, like the agreement itself, has been signed by us both. In three places—viz. (i) for a short distance from either bank of the Kunar River; (ii) in the neighbourhood of the Binshi Kotal; and (iii) in the neighbourhood of the Frepaman Kotal—this red line has been broken up into dots, because the exact position of the watershed in these localities has not been ascertained with perfect accuracy; but wherever the watershed may lie the frontier will follow it, subject only to any slight variations from the watershed which may be considered necessary under Article (4) of the present agreement.

(7) That, since on the map attached to the Convention the Arnawai stream was drawn on the western side of the river in the place of the Landai Sin of the Kafir country (lit. Kafiristan), which has been decided to pertain to the Afghan Government, and, since after inquiry and inspection of the same it was clearly ascertained by the survey party that the aforesaid stream is situated on the eastern side of the Kunar River, and falls into the river near the village of Arnawai, and that the drawing of it on the western side (of the river) in the place of the Landai Sin was a mistake, this Arnawai stream has (now) been drawn and marked on the present survey map in its own proper place, and that stream, which was drawn in the Convention map on the western side of the river, was the Landai Sin stream of the Kafir country (lit. Kafiristan), which has now been decided to pertain to the Government of Afghanistan and to be included in the limits of Afghanistan. Accordingly, in the present survey map it has been marked with the name of Landai Sin and has also been written with the name of Bashgal. Moreover, Sao and Nari and Birkot, and the village of Arnawai, were not written on the map attached to the Convention, (but) now in the new survey map the names of all these four above-mentioned villages have been entered, the village of Arnawai being written on the Chitrar side of the boundary line, and Sao, Nari, and Birkot on the side of the Government of Afghanistan.

(Signed) R. Udny.
(Signed) Ghulam Haidar Khan, Sipah Salar.

Letter from Sir Richard Udny, K.C.S.I., Commissioner of Peshawar,
to Abdur Rahman, in respect of occurrences on August 7, 1897.

(After compliments.)

“I have received instructions by telegram from his Excellency the Viceroy to inform your Highness that the Government of India have received information from several sources that large numbers of Afghan subjects have joined the Mullah of Adda and taken an active part in the recent attack on the British frontier post of Shabkaddar and the burning of the British village of Shankargarh. It is reported that, notwithstanding the severe losses inflicted on the Mullah’s gathering by the Border Military Police holding the Shabkaddar post on the 7th August, and by British troops on the 9th August, he is still being joined by large parties of men from all parts of the Jelalabad Valley, and that the villages of Chardeh, Ambarkhana, Basawal, Girdi, Sarkani, and Lalpura are keeping rafts ready for the passage of the various contingents. It has also been stated that numbers of Afghan sepoys in plain clothes and Ut Khels from Laughman have joined the Mullah. It is unnecessary for the Viceroy to dilate upon the seriousness of this information. His Excellency demands that you will immediately take steps to recall your subjects, prevent others from crossing your Highness’s border with hostile intent, and render it impossible for them to repeat an offence so exceedingly grave as this deliberate violation of the British Indian frontier. The Viceroy in his letter of May 2, 1896, called your Highness’s attention to the unfriendly conduct of the Sipah Salar Ghulam Haidar Khan. It is impossible that Afghan sepoys can have joined in this attack without the knowledge of the Sipah Salar, and the Viceroy is constrained to warn your Highness that if you do not control the Sipah Salar, or withdraw him from his command on the frontier, your Highness must be held responsible for his actions. For the rest, may you continue to enjoy good health.

“Dated August 13, 1897.”

Letter from the Amir of Afghanistan to the Commissioner and Superintendent, Peshawar Division, dated Wednesday, 18th Rabi-ul-Awal, 1315 H. = 18th August 1897.

(After compliments.)

“I received and perused your letter of the 13th August 1897 = 13th Rabi-ul-Awal, 1315 H.

“I read your letter in order to acquaint myself with the circumstances concerning Sipah Salar Ghulam Haidar Khan and the people under the jurisdiction of Jelalabad about which you have written. I now write to say that, as regards Sipah Salar Ghulam Haidar Khan and the regular Afghan army, not a single man is or will be with the followers of Mullah Najm-ud-din, and hereafter, too, none will accompany him. As regards tribesmen you know yourself that for fear of me they can never openly join such a movement; if any one has come, he must have gone secretly. You are aware yourself that a few years ago Mullah Najm-ud-din fled from Kabul and settled at Jarobi in the Peshawar district, that the trusted officers of the British Government summoned him to their presence on several occasions, and, though he did not attend on them, he was keeping up correspondence with them and had fled from my country. On account of the evil acts he had committed, and the many disturbances which he had created among the people, he was so much frightened at his own misdeeds that he took refuge near Peshawar. The Mohmands and the people of Jelalabad and of the mountain districts of Jelalabad look upon him as their prophet, and at his bidding and the bidding of the Mullah of Manki thousands of men are their devoted disciples. Just as in old days in Europe the Popes used to profess to be the sole disposers of heaven and hell, and the people also accepted the word of worthless priests, so, too, these Mullahs claim to possess the same power; and during these last few years they have stirred up my own Afghan subjects to rebel against me, so that in every rising, whether at Kandahar or in the case of Mullah Mushk-i-Alam or in the case of the Uzbeg Mullahs who joined Ishak in Balkh, it was the Mullahs on every occasion who created the disturbance. There is a village called Hadda, which is inhabited by Chumars, or leather-tanners, but because it is the residence of this mischievous Mullah Najm-ud-din, his disciples have named this impure village Hadda Sharif, that is to say, Hadda the noble, and his pupils and disciples regard him as a prophet. What calamities are there that they have not suffered, and what blood is there that they have not shed by his senseless commands? He has now taken up his abode in a country which is independent of Kabul and in the neighbourhood of Peshawar, and has made himself a notable personage. Under these circumstances, let the trusted officers of the British Government themselves look at the matter impartially and say in what way I could deal with him, and how am I to arrange for him and his disciples, who regard him as a prophet and gather round him secretly? Every Mullah for many years denounced me in various ways as a Kafir, and at their bidding their disciples fought against me, and their houses were destroyed and they themselves were killed. For fourteen years they raised every part of Afghanistan against me, both in the plain country and in the hills, till thousands of men perished on both sides, and several of the Mullah agitators themselves were killed with thousands of the disciples of these turbulent priests. Every Mullah raised the people against me as long as he could, and when he had failed he used to take shelter within the limits of the British Government, and, by the magnanimity of that Government, a morsel of bread used to be given him, upon which these Mullahs used to maintain themselves. These now are the very same Mullahs who have fled from me and have settled in territory which is independent of me near Peshawar. In what way, then, can I manage them? As regards the Sipah Salar and the regular army, you may rest assured that no such hostile act shall ever be committed by them, but as it has been or may have been reported to you that the regular army or the Sipah Salar Ghulam Haidar Khan is taking part in this disturbance, this is all a fabrication, and I myself take oath that neither the troops nor the trusted officers of Afghanistan have any part in this matter. Every word that may have reached the ears of the trusted officers of the British Government is without foundation. On account of the proximity to you of these Mullahs who are close to your country, and have now according to the boundary demarcation fallen within the limits of the British Government, what more can I add in this matter to these arguments? For the rest, by the grace of God, all is well. May the days of honour be perpetual.”

From His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its Dependencies to the Address of His Excellency the Viceroy, dated the 19th Rabi-ul-Awal, 1315 H., corresponding to the 19th August 1897.

(After compliments.)

“I have the honour to inform your Excellency that I have received a friendly letter from Mr. R. Udny, Commissioner, Peshawar, dated the 13th August 1897 (corresponding to the 13th Rabi-ul-Awal, 1315 H.).

“When I received the Commissioner’s letter, I wrote in reply to him giving true particulars, and writing them to him in a very sincere and friendly manner....

“If the false utterances and fabricated reports of self-interested persons be investigated in a friendly manner, God be pleased, the relations of union and friendship between these two Governments will always be considerably strengthened.

“Further, I have to state that I have secured a letter, written by Mullah Najm-ud-din (of Hadda), which he has issued as a notification to the people of Ningrahar, and which is one of the letters of a similar kind which he has sent to tribesmen in other parts of the country. I send the original letter of notification issued by the Mullah in a separate envelope, which is closed and bears on it my handwriting, enclosed in this friendly letter to your Excellency. My kind friend, no doubt he has sent such letters, perhaps hundreds of them, to his disciples among the tribesmen in Afghanistan. The people also regard him as holding the position of their Prophet. Such are the particulars of the Mullah and his disciples.”

From His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India to His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan, G.C.B., G.C.S.I., dated Simla, August 30, 1897.

(After compliments.)

“It gave me pleasure to read the letter of your Highness to the Commissioner of Peshawar, dated the 18th Rabi-ul-Awal, 1315 H. corresponding to the 18th August 1897. The denial which your Highness has clearly expressed therein, of any complicity on the part of your Highness’s officials and sepoys of the regular army, was made in a still more marked manner by the public utterances of your Highness at the Durbar held on the previous day. Your Highness may rest assured that I should not have suggested the possibility of so grave a breach of the relations that must subsist between friendly allies had I not had reason to think that the complaints made to me were well founded. That your Highness has taken thus early the opportunity to make public an emphatic repudiation, on behalf of yourself and your officials, of any complicity with the actions of the Mullahs, who have been stirring up strife on the borders of India, justifies the hope that the charges made can be disproved, and that for the future no doubt will arise of the loyalty of your Highness’s subjects and servants to the alliance with the British Government which your Highness has again so openly professed.

“It is right that I should tell your Highness the information which I have received which indicates that tribesmen from your Highness’s territories have joined the Mullah of Hadda, and have, in other respects, committed aggression against the British Government. Bodies of men from Jelalabad district crossed the Kabul River openly with flags flying and drums beating. After the fight at Shabkaddar they returned in the same manner, carrying their dead and helping their wounded. On the side of Khost numbers of camels stolen from my troops in Dawar have been taken across the border, and it is even reported that these camels have been ordered to be collected by Sirdar Sherindil Khan. Your Highness will no doubt recognise the propriety of directing the restoration of camels belonging to the Government of India, which have been stolen and carried into Afghan territory.

“Your Highness has said that ‘tribesmen can never join such a movement openly for fear of me. If any one has come he must have gone secretly.’ What I now ask your Highness, in accordance with those assurances of friendship which you have so readily made, is that you will publicly announce to the tribesmen through your local officers that, if they cross the border and join in disturbances against the British Government, they will incur your displeasure. The belief is entertained by many misguided persons that they will not incur your Highness’s displeasure by acting in a hostile manner against the British Government, and this belief can be dispelled if your Highness’s local officers will keep watch along the Kabul River and at other places in order to prevent your Highness’s subjects from crossing the frontier with hostile intentions, whether secretly or openly. I ask your Highness, therefore, to issue orders to this effect.

“I mention, for your Highness’s information, the following facts regarding the disturbances that have arisen among the tribes. These disturbances were wholly unprovoked and cannot be tolerated. I detailed a force of troops to punish the tribesmen concerned in the attack upon Malakand and Chakdarra. This force has visited the Upper Swat Valley and received the submission of the tribesmen there.

“The circumstances of the Afridis are these; they have been stirred up to break their engagements of many years’ standing with the British Government and to display hostility. The men who are responsible for this are Mullah Said Akbar, Aka Khel, and Mir Bashir, Malikdin Khel. Some of the Afridi tribe in the Khyber have remained true to their engagements, but they were unable to resist the attack of the rest of the tribe. The posts have been burned, and the road is now undefended and closed to the passage of kafilas. In the present state of the frontier, the carriage of valuable goods, and especially of warlike stores, must necessarily be for the time discontinued.

“I shall deal with the Afridis and any other tribe which attacks the British border or British posts in a manner to make clear the supremacy of the British Government. I am glad to learn that your Highness in Durbar characterised as false and unfounded the story concocted by designing persons that the troops assembled at Peshawar were intended for an attack on Kabul. Your Highness is well aware that, so long as your Highness on your part observes the obligations you have undertaken to the Government of India, the Government of India will honourably adhere to its promise of supporting your Highness’s Government.”

From His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its Dependencies to the address of His Excellency the Viceroy, dated 12th Rabi-us-Sani, 1315 H., corresponding to the 10th September 1897.

(After compliments.)

“I have received your Excellency’s friendly letter, dated the 30th August 1897, and understood the contents.

“As regards the report which your Excellency had received to the effect that my subjects had openly collected together and, forming themselves into separate bands, with flags flying and drums beating, crossed the Kabul River and joined Mullah Hadda’s party; that after the fight at Shabkaddar they returned to their places carrying their dead and helping their wounded; and as to your Excellency asking me to order my local officers to prevent my subjects from crossing the frontier and joining Mullah Hadda with hostile intentions against the British Government, and even to appoint guards along the Kabul River and at other places, to prevent them from crossing, my dear friend, after your Excellency wrote to me, such a thing has not occurred, viz., that Afghan subjects openly collected in such bands and crossed the frontier with flags flying. The true state of affairs has been what I have communicated to your Excellency in my former letter, i.e., that Mullah Najm-ud-din, an inhabitant of Jarobi, having spread the net of his cunning, has made numerous people from the different Afghan tribes his disciples, and they obey his orders to the utmost extent. During these times, when he became the source of mischief and disturbances, he has sent letters in every direction, and invites all people to join him. I had secured one of his letters, which I sent for your Excellency’s perusal, and which your Excellency must have received some time ago.

“I have ordered the local officers to keep watch on Afghan subjects to the best of their ability, and prevent them from joining Mullah Hadda. Thus the inhabitants of Lamkan (Laughman) had collected a large number of people, numbering about 30,000 men, and prepared flags; but on the officers receiving my orders, they used their best endeavours and succeeded in dispersing them; and they all returned to their homes. No doubt the news-writers on the frontier must have communicated this report to your Excellency.

“No tribesmen from my territories can do such an act in an open manner. Some of them, however, have great faith in Mullah Hadda, and it is possible that they may have joined him during the night, travelling like thieves by unfrequented roads. How is it possible to keep watch on thieves during nights along such an extensive frontier?

“Your Excellency writes that guards should be appointed along the Kabul River and on other roads, so that no one might be allowed to cross over to the other side.

“My kind friend, such an arrangement could only be possible by posting about ten thousand soldiers on all the mountain tops and at all the fords in that district. Then they will be able to execute properly such an arrangement, otherwise how would it be possible to stop the people who are familiar with the country? If the well-known roads be guarded against them, they can, owing to their knowledge of the country, find paths, over mountains and through desert tracts, to cross the frontier. As far as possible, however, the local officials have been watching and will watch any open movements of the tribesmen.

“As regards the dead and the wounded whom your Excellency writes that the tribesmen carried away with them after the fight at Shabkaddar, I beg to state that, if they have brought back their dead secretly, they have already, according to their custom, buried them, and now no trace can be obtained of them. As to the wounded, if questions be asked, they explain that they are always engaged in tribal feuds with one another, and they often kill and wound one another, and that the wounded men have received their wounds in such tribal feuds; and, as the witnesses belong to the people concerned, it is difficult to prove anything contrary to what they allege.

“Your Excellency has kindly informed me that the disturbances which have broken out on the frontiers of India have been wholly unprovoked; that a force of troops was detailed to punish the tribesmen concerned in the attack upon Malakand and Chakdarra; that the force visited the Upper Swat Valley and received the submission of the tribesmen there; that the Afridis, who have had engagements for many years’ standing with the British Government, have been stirred to hostility; that the men who are responsible for this were Mullah Saiyid Akbar, Aka Khel, and Mir Bashir, Malikdin Khel; that they have burned some of the posts in the Khyber; that the road was undefended and closed to the passage of kafilas; that in the present state the carriage of valuable goods, and especially of warlike stores, must necessarily be for the time discontinued; and that the Afridis and other tribes, who have attacked British Government posts, would be dealt with in a manner to make clear the supremacy of the British Government.

“I have understood the facts of the circumstances which your Excellency has detailed, and I feel certain that the tribesmen, who have stirred up disturbances and who, without possessing any warlike materials and appliances, commenced hostilities against the Government, will be put to flight and dispersed.

“I saw some of these people, and asked them by way of advice why they were disobeying the illustrious British Government, and exposing themselves to slaughter and loss. They said that their proceedings were undertaken owing to the hopeless circumstances in which they were involved, and they gave the particulars as stated below, i.e., that during former years a firm promise was given, on behalf of the illustrious British Government, to the frontier tribesmen that they would always be exempted from the restrictions of Government laws, and would remain independent in their own country; that when they received such orders from the great Government, they lived with perfect assurance of mind, and never paid any taxes to any one; that subsequently the frontier British officials, disregarding the orders of the Government of India issued to them (tribesmen), began to make roads in their country, and subsequently asked them for revenue and inflicted fines, &c., upon them and generally treated them in the same way as the old inhabitants of India were treated.

“That the people inhabiting hilly tracts are generally poor and possess no property; that they have, therefore, exposed themselves to destruction, and they desire that the frontier officials should act in accordance with the promise which the Government of India had given them.

“I then asked them to produce any Government ‘Sanad’ in support of their statements, and they produced several printed notifications, declaring the independence of those tribesmen, issued by the Exalted Government of India.

“As I have heard the above-mentioned particulars from some of the said tribesmen, and as I saw the notifications also which they had in their possession, I have communicated the above as a piece of information to your Excellency. Apparently the complaints of these people are against the local frontier officers of India. It is possible that your Excellency may have received similar accounts.

“Further, as to the closure of the Khyber road owing to the instigations of the Mullahs and its remaining unprotected, your Excellency has informed me about the causes which have led to the discontinuance of the carriage through the pass of merchandise, and especially of valuable goods and warlike stores.

“I am aware that those independent tribesmen do plunder. Thus, some time ago Sartip Muhammad Hosein, stationed at Dakka, had entrusted to the charge of the escort party (Khyber) some packages of raisins and raw goat-skins, but some mischievous people carried off the above goods. There was another kafila carrying about six lakhs of rupees, belonging to merchants, which subsequently reached Dakka; but the money was called back from Dakka.

“I have, therefore, arranged that any articles which may be required to be despatched urgently should be sent by Karachi and Kandahar, until the Khyber road is made safe again.

“Your Excellency writes further about the story concocted by designing persons that the troops assembled at Peshawar were intended for an attack on Kabul, and that the Government of India will honourably adhere to its promise of supporting my Government. My dear friend, many men with interested motives and foolish prattle are to be found everywhere, and they say whatever comes to their silly thoughts. No importance has ever been attached to the foolish statements of such persons who only look to the surface, and who seek to create mischief.

“Peshawar is a country which is in the possession of the British Government, who are free to adopt any arrangements and measures which they may like in it. In this way both our Governments have authority to adopt measures which they consider it necessary to take in their own territories. Further, up to the present, no such thing has occurred as should lead to the entertainment of such unnecessary thoughts. Supposing such a thing were to occur, the first step would be to ask for the cause of it from the side where it should occur.

“If the matter were such as to require an exchange of correspondence, correspondence would no doubt take place, so that the cause of it might come to light. Otherwise, why should ear be given to the foolish talk of interested persons?

“In the same way that your Excellency has written, so long as the British Government retain sentiments of good friendship and union in regard to friendship and alliance with the God-granted Government, please God, I will, with full confidence, adhere to the friendship of the illustrious British Government in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

“As regards the camels which the Waziri thieves stole from the troops in Dawar, and brought to Khost where they sold them to the inhabitants, I have to state that Sirdar Sherindil Khan has ordered the owners of the camels to keep them safe. If your Excellency considers it necessary that the camels should be taken back from them, then, as the inhabitants of Khost have bought the camels from the Waziri thieves, the price current in the country should be given to them and the camels taken back, so that the people of Khost may not suffer loss.”

From His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India to His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan, G.C.B., G.C.S.I., dated Simla, September 6, 1897.

(After compliments.)

“I have already, in my letter to your Highness of the 30th August, acknowledged your Highness’s letter of the 18th Rabi-ul-Awal, 1315 H., corresponding to the 18th August 1897, to the Commissioner of Peshawar, in which your Highness has denied any complicity with the disturbances on the frontier of India. I have now to acknowledge the receipt of your Highness’s further friendly letter on the same subject, dated the 19th Rabi-ul-Awal, 1315 H., corresponding to the 19th August 1897, which was sent by way of Quetta in Baluchistan.

“With this letter, your Highness has sent me a copy of the proclamation issued by the Mullah of Adda to the people of Ningrahar. I thank your Highness for taking so much trouble to send me this information. I had already seen this proclamation, and I was informed that the person from whom my copy was obtained had himself received the Mullah’s proclamation from your Highness’s Sartip of Dakka.

“I cordially agree with what your Highness writes that ‘the false utterances and fabricated reports of self-interested persons’ should be investigated in a friendly manner, and with a view to forestalling any such report which might be made to your Highness, I write this letter to inform you that my troops are about to enter the Mohmand country in order to search out the Mullah of Adda and his lashkar, and to disperse and destroy them. In the letter written by your Highness on the 18th Rabi-ul-Awal to the commissioner of Peshawar, your Highness has stated that Mullah Najm-ud-din ‘has now taken up his abode in a country which is independent of Kabul and in the neighbourhood of Peshawar.’

“Your Highness has also written, ‘what more can I add in this matter to the foregoing arguments, having regard to the proximity to you of these Mullahs who are close to your country and have now, according to the boundary demarcation, fallen within the limits of the British Government.’

“It is, no doubt, true that the Mullah has committed hostile acts within the territory which it has been agreed falls within the limits of the British Government, and if my troops meet him there his punishment will be speedily accomplished. But I am informed that the Mullah has established his abode in the village of Jarobi, and though, as your Highness is aware, the country is wild and unsurveyed, and no permanent boundary pillars have been erected, it is understood that this village probably lies within the territory which, according to the arrangement proposed in my letter of the 12th November 1896, would fall within the limits of Afghanistan. Your Highness will agree with me that this man, who has given so much trouble to your Highness’s Government as well as to the British Government, must not escape the punishment for his misdeeds, and if the Mullah retires before my troops to Jarobi, or to any place similarly situated, my troops will be authorised to follow him up and destroy him and his habitation. I do not wish your Highness to regard any such action on the part of my troops as indicating an intention to vary or depart from what we have agreed upon as the dividing-line in the Mohmand country. I have no intention that my troops should stay in that country, and they will certainly not go further into it than is necessary in order to carry out the object with which they are being despatched. On the other hand, if the Mullah should take flight across the mountains into the Kunar Valley, my troops have orders not to follow him beyond the watershed, but I shall look to your Highness to give orders to your officers to deal with him as he deserves, and to restrain him from exciting the foolish tribesmen to further acts of hostility.

“I have always endeavoured in my correspondence with your Highness to write frankly and openly so that misunderstandings may be avoided. Your Highness will, I hope, recognise that this is my object on this occasion.”

From the Amir of Afghanistan to the address of His Excellency the Viceroy, dated September 12, 1897.

(After compliments.)

“I beg to inform your Excellency that I have received your friendly letter of the 6th instant. The Mullah will not come to this country of mine, because he has acted wrongly, and, should he still come, I will expel him from my country, so that he may go towards Arabia, because he is a very wicked person. Your Excellency’s troops, however, should not advance too far (lit. should not make a great advance), lest some confusion arise within the limits of Kunar or among the troops which are in Kunar. The Mullah is a great knave. He should not be allowed to (lit. let it not be that he might) excite the people and troops of Ningrahar. Precaution is necessary, so that the Army of the Sublime Government may not raise commotion and tumult in the neighbourhood, and the Mullah excite the people and be the source of disturbances.

“As regards the remaining portion of the undemarcated boundary of that district, your Excellency states that Jarobi is possibly within Afghan limits. As up to this time no decision has been come to in regard to those places, it will, undoubtedly, be as your Excellency has written.”

From His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India to His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan, G.C.B., G.C.S.I., dated Simla, October 7, 1897.

(After compliments.)

“Your Highness has probably already heard of the result of the advance of my troops against the Adda Mullah, which in my letter of the 6th September 1897, corresponding to the 8th Rabi-us-Sani, 1315 H., I told your Highness was about to be undertaken. The Mullah’s gathering has been dispersed: my troops followed him to his home at Jarobi, but he had already fled across the boundary into your Highness’s territory, and, in accordance with my promise, my troops did not pursue him further. It is now for your Highness to fulfil the part which your Highness in your letter of the 12th September 1897, announced the intention of taking, in the event of the Mullah entering Afghanistan. I look to your Highness to prevent him from concocting further mischief from Afghan territory.

“As an instance of the mischief which the Adda Mullah has been guilty of, I enclose in original a letter, dated the 2nd September 1897, from Najm-ud-din to the Mian Guls of Swat. The Mullah writes: ‘I had written to his Highness the Amir, Zia-ul-millat-wad-din, on the subject of jehad. His Highness replied that we should wait: that his Highness would consult all the military officers, Khans and Maliks of his Highness’s territory and then write again in reply, telling me the arrangements and preparations for jehad.’

“Further on, he adds: ‘Please God, his Highness the Amir will make arrangements for the jehad and issue a notification to that effect.’

“In this way, Najm-ud-din has tried to make mischief between your Highness and the Government of India, and it is not to be wondered at if, under such circumstances, people believe that they will not incur your Highness’s displeasure by acting in a hostile manner towards the British Government.

“In my letter of the 30th August 1897, equivalent to the 1st Rabi-us-Sani, 1315 H., I informed your Highness of the misdeeds of the Afridis, and of my intention to deal with them in a manner to make clear the supremacy of the British Government.

“I now have the honour to inform your Highness that a punitive force under the command of General Sir William Lockhart, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., will shortly start to march through the country of the Orakzais and Afridis, and to compel both tribes to submit to such terms as I decide to impose upon them.

“I have received a letter from my Agent at Kabul, enclosing copy of one sent to him by your Highness on the 25th Rabi-us-Sani, 1315 H., corresponding to the 23rd September 1897. From this letter I learn that your Highness has refused to receive or encourage, and has turned back, the Afridis whose representatives were on their way to Kabul. I thank your Highness for this friendly act, which is exactly in accordance with what I had proposed to ask your Highness to do.

“It is probable that, when the British troops advance, the tribesmen will follow the example of the Adda Mullah’s lashkar, and take flight into Afghan territory. I have, indeed, been informed that they are already sending their women and property into Ningrahar.

“Your Highness is aware that in December 1895 and in May last I caused the Kaffir refugees to be disarmed, and took measures to prevent their causing your Highness annoyance.

“I now ask your Highness to take similar action in regard to the Orakzais and Afridis, by ordering your local officers to disarm those who enter your limits and to prevent them from making Afghan territory a base for attacks upon my forces.”

From His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan and its Dependencies to the address of His Excellency the Viceroy, dated the 16th Jamadi-ul-Awal, 1315 H., corresponding to the 13th October 1897 (received on October 20, 1897).

(After compliments.)

“I have received your Excellency’s friendly letter, dated the 7th October 1897, enclosing a letter from Mullah Najm-ud-din, the Fakir of Hadda, to the Mian Guls, which I have perused. I have also understood the contents of your Excellency’s letter.

“As to the escape of Mullah Hadda from his house before the British troops reached it, and as to my promise that I would turn him out from this side of the boundary if he should enter my territory, I have now to inform your Excellency that I have issued orders to search for the said Mullah by day and night in view to arrest him. The news-reporters appointed for the purpose report that the Mullah has concealed himself and is secretly moving about. I have also ordered that his whereabouts should be found out and a report made. Please God, the said Mullah’s mischief will be stopped, if he be within the limits of my territory; but if this mischievous man move about in tracts which have not been divided yet between the British and Afghan Governments, the British officials should instruct the Maliks of such tracts to make arrangements about the said mischievous man. This man does not pass a single night at one place. He is in motion like mercury: during night he is at one place, and during day at another. Such are the reports made by news-reporters. Notwithstanding this, I am engaged in endeavouring to arrest him. Your Excellency may rest assured that, if I succeed in arresting him, I will turn him out from my territory.

“I have perused the letter which Mullah Najm-ud-din wrote to the Mian Guls of Swat, and which your Excellency sent to me. I write to say that whatever the Mullah has written, he has done so with the object of deceiving the tribesmen. His object is to excite people to rebel. Some years ago he became hostile towards me, and excited all his disciples to rise against me, and made them fight with my troops. Now in this way he is making the distant people fight with the British Government. He is mischievous; he says what is advisable and beneficial in his own interests. If I had given him the said promise, he was not distant from my country, and at the outside my troops at Jelalabad were only two stages away from his residence. Your Excellency can see from the date of his letter what a lie he has told. Liars tell lies, but wise persons should distinguish (between truth and falsehood). I have known these Mullahs well for years. They are like the priests of the time of Peter the Great, who created great mischief in Russia. These Mullahs pretend before the people that Paradise and Hell are within their power and authority.

“I have understood what your Excellency kindly wrote for my information about sending British troops for the chastisement of the Orakzais and Afridis. I have also learnt about the decision which the high officials of the British Government have come to in regard to punishing the said tribesmen and bringing them to obedience.

“I have further understood what your Excellency wrote about the report which Maulavi Ghafur Khan made to your Excellency regarding the arrival of the Afridi jirga at Jelalabad, and my sending them back to their country from that place; and your Excellency expressing thanks to me for my action. As the people are seeking their own interests, their statements cannot be relied upon.

“Your Excellency writes that, if at the time of the British troops advancing against the Orakzais and Afridis these tribesmen, being obliged to flee, should enter my territory, they should be disarmed and prevented from making any attack on British territory. My dear friend, I will not, please God, to the best of my power, allow my subjects to join the tribesmen who have rebelled, in view to help them in their fights. But when they bring their families to the houses of their own relatives I will take no notice of the circumstance, because these people are mutually related to one another. They have given thousands of their daughters in marriage to one another. If I were to prohibit this mutual intercourse and prevent them from bringing their families to Jelalabad, the tribesmen would become hostile to me, in the same way that they have become hostile to the British Government. Their hostility to the British Government cannot be of much account, because the British Government is a Great Government. They have appointed troops for their punishment, composed of English soldiers, Sikhs, and Hindus. But all my troops consist of these tribesmen. They will never agree to the destruction of their own kith and kin; and they will again, under the orders of the mischievous Mullahs, issue improper edicts against me.

“It would be better if peace be made between the Tirah people, Afridis and Orakzais, and the British Government. But if not, and fight ensues, and these tribesmen should flee and come to the district of Ningrahar, your Excellency may rest assured that they will not be able any more to attack or interfere with your Excellency’s country; and until they have consented to become subjects of the illustrious British Government, I will never allow them to make any interference with British territory. But if they continue to remain in their own mountains, they will be beyond my power and control. If they come to my country, like Umra Khan, they will not behave improperly, and I will not allow them to do so.

Treaty signed at Kabul on March 21, 1905, between Mr. (afterwards Sir) Louis Dane, C.S.I., and Habib Ullah, Amir of Afghanistan.

(After compliments.)

His Majesty Siraj-ul-millat-wa-ud-din Amir Habib Ulla Khan, Independent King of the State of Afghanistan and its dependencies, on the one part, and the Honourable Mr. Louis William Dane, C.S.I., Foreign Secretary of the Mighty Government of India and Representative of the Exalted British Government, on the other part.

His said Majesty does hereby agree to this, that in the principles and in the matters of subsidiary importance of the Treaty regarding internal and external affairs, and of the engagements which his Highness, my late father, that is, Kia-ul-millat-wa-ud-din, who has found mercy, may God enlighten his tomb! concluded and acted upon with the Exalted British Government, I also have acted, am acting, and will act upon the same agreement and compact, and I will not contravene them in any dealing or in any promise.

The said Honourable Mr. Louis William Dane does hereby agree to this, that as to the very agreement and engagement which the Exalted British Government concluded and acted upon with the noble father of his Majesty Siraj-ul-millat-wa-ud-din, that is, his Highness Zia-ul-millat-wa-ud-din, who has found mercy, regarding internal and external affairs and matters of principle or of subsidiary importance, I confirm them and write that they (the British Government) will not act contrary to those agreements and engagements in any way or at any time.

Made on Tuesday, the fourteenth day of Muharram-ul-haram of the year thirteen hundred and twenty-three Hijri, corresponding to the twenty-first day of March of the year nineteen hundred and five A.D.

Amir Habib Ulla.
Louis W. Dane.

Circular Despatch addressed by Prince Gortchakow to Russian Representatives abroad: dated November 21, 1864.

St. Petersburg,

November 21, 1864.

The Russian newspapers have given an account of the last military operations executed by a detachment of our troops, in the regions of Central Asia, with remarkable success and important results. It was to be foreseen that these events would the more attract the attention of the foreign public that their scene was laid in scarcely known countries.

Our august Master has commanded me to state to you briefly, but with clearness and precision, the position in which we find ourselves in Central Asia, the interests which inspire us in those countries, and the end which we have in view.

The position of Russia in Central Asia is that of all civilised States which are brought into contact with half-savage, nomad populations, possessing no fixed social organisation.

In such cases it always happens that the more civilised State is forced, in the interest of the security of its frontier and its commercial relations, to exercise a certain ascendency over those whom their turbulent and unsettled character make most undesirable neighbours.

First, there are raids and acts of pillage to be put down. To put a stop to them, the tribes on the frontier have to be reduced to a state of more or less perfect submission. This result once attained, these tribes take to more peaceful habits, but are in their turn exposed to the attacks of the more distant tribes.

The State is bound to defend them against these depredations, and to punish those who commit them. Hence the necessity of distant, costly, and periodically recurring expeditions against an enemy whom his social organisation makes it impossible to seize. If, the robbers once punished, the expedition is withdrawn, the lesson is soon forgotten; its withdrawal is put down to weakness. It is a peculiarity of Asiatics to respect nothing but visible and palpable force: the moral force of reason and of the interests of civilisation has as yet no hold upon them. The work has then always to be done over again from the beginning.

In order to put a stop to this state of permanent disorder, fortified posts are established in the midst of these hostile tribes, and an influence is brought to bear upon them which reduces them by degrees to a state of more or less forced submission. But soon beyond this second line other still more distant tribes come in their turn to threaten the same dangers and necessitate the same measures of repression. The State thus finds itself forced to choose one of two alternatives, either to give up this endless labour and to abandon its frontier to perpetual disturbance, rendering all prosperity, all security, all civilisation an impossibility, or, on the other hand, to plunge deeper and deeper into barbarous countries, where the difficulties and expenses increase with every step in advance.

Such has been the fate of every country which has found itself in a similar position. The United States in America, France in Algeria, Holland in her colonies, England in India—all have been irresistibly forced, less by ambition than by imperious necessity, into this onward march, where the greatest difficulty is to know when to stop.

Such, too, have been the reasons which have led the Imperial Government to take up at first a position resting on one side on the Syr Daria, on the other on the Lake Issik-Kul, and to strengthen these two lines by advanced forts, which, little by little, have crept on into the heart of those distant regions, without, however, succeeding in establishing on the other side of our frontiers that tranquillity which is indispensable for their security.

The explanation of this unsettled state of things is to be found, first, in the fact that, between the extreme points of this double line, there is an immense unoccupied space, where all attempts at colonisation or caravan trade are paralysed by the inroads of the robber-tribes; and, in the second place, in the perpetual fluctuations of the political condition of those countries, where Turkestan and Khokand, sometimes united, sometimes at variance, always at war, either with one another or with Bokhara, presented no chance of settled relations or of any regular transactions whatever.

The Imperial Government thus found itself, in spite of all its efforts, in the dilemma we have above alluded to, that is to say, compelled either to permit the continuance of a state of permanent disorder, paralysing to all security and progress, or to condemn itself to costly and distant expeditions, leading to no practical result, and with the work always to be done anew; or, lastly, to enter upon the undefined path of conquest and annexation which has given to England the empire of India, by attempting the subjugation by armed force, one after another, of the small independent states whose habits of pillage and turbulence and whose perpetual revolts leave their neighbours neither peace nor repose.

Neither of these alternative courses was in accordance with the object of our august Master’s policy, which consists, not in extending beyond all reasonable bounds the regions under his sceptre, but in giving a solid basis to his rule, in guaranteeing their security, and in developing their social organisation, their commerce, their wellbeing, and their civilisation.

Our task was, therefore, to discover a system adapted to the attainment of this threefold object.

The following principles have, in consequence, been laid down:

(1) It has been judged to be indispensable that our two fortified frontier lines—one extending from China to the lake Issik-Kul, the other from the Sea of Aral along the Syr-Daria—should be united by fortified points, so that all our posts should be in a position of mutual support, leaving no gap through which the nomad tribes might make with impunity their inroads and depredations.

(2) It was essential that the line of our advanced forts thus completed should be situated in a country fertile enough, not only to insure their supplies, but also to facilitate the regular colonisation, which alone can prepare a future of stability and prosperity for the occupied country, by gaining over the neighbouring populations to civilised life.

(3) And lastly. It was urgent to lay down this line definitely, so as to escape the danger of being carried away, as is almost inevitable, by a series of repressive measures and reprisals, into an unlimited extension of territory.

To attain this end a system had to be established which should depend not only on reason, which may be elastic, but on geographical and political conditions, which are fixed and permanent.

This system was suggested to us by a very simple fact, the result of long experience, namely, that the nomad tribes, which can neither be seized nor punished, nor effectually kept in order, are our most inconvenient neighbours; while, on the other hand, agricultural and commercial populations attached to the soil, and possessing a more advanced social organisation, offer us every chance of gaining neighbours with whom there is a possibility of entering into relations.

Consequently, our frontier line ought to swallow up the former and stop short at the limit of the latter.

These three principles supply a clear, natural, and logical explanation of our last military operations in Central Asia. In fact our original frontier line, extending along the Syr-Daria to Fort Perovski on one side, and on the other to the Lake Issik-Kul, had the drawback of being almost on the verge of the desert. It was broken by a wide gap between the two extreme points; it did not offer sufficient resources to our troops, and left unsettled tribes over the border with which any settled arrangement became impossible.

In spite of our unwillingness to extend our frontier, these motives had been powerful enough to induce the Imperial Government to establish this line between Lake Issik-Kul and the Syr-Daria by fortifying the town of Chimkent, lately occupied by us. By the adoption of this line we obtain a double result. In the first place, the country it takes in is fertile, well wooded, and watered by numerous watercourses; it is partly inhabited by various Kirghiz tribes, which have already accepted our rule; it consequently offers favourable conditions for colonisation and the supply of provisions to our garrisons. In the second place, it puts us in the immediate neighbourhood of the agricultural and commercial populations of Khokand. We find ourselves in presence of a more solid and compact, less unsettled, and better organised social state; fixing for us with geographical precision the limit up to which we are bound to advance, and at which we must halt; because, while, on the one hand, any further extension of our rule, meeting, as it would, no longer with unstable communities, such as the nomad tribes, but with more regularly constituted states, would entail considerable exertions, and would draw us on from annexation to annexation with unforeseen complications. On the other, with such states for our future neighbours, their backward civilisation and the instability of their political condition do not shut us out from the hope that the day may come when regular relations may, to the advantage of both parties, take the place of the permanent troubles which have up to the present moment paralysed all progress in those countries.

Such, Sir, are the interests which inspire the policy of our august Master in Central Asia; such is the object, by his Imperial Majesty’s orders, of the action of his Cabinet.

You are requested to take these arguments as your guide in any explanations you may give to the Government to which you are accredited, in case questions are asked or you may see credence given to erroneous ideas as to our action in these distant parts.

It is needless for me to lay stress upon the interest, which Russia evidently has, not to increase her territory, and, above all, to avoid raising complications on her frontiers which can but delay and paralyse her domestic development.

The programme which I have just traced is in accordance with these views.

Very frequently of late years the civilisation of these countries, which are her neighbours on the continent of Asia, has been assigned to Russia as her special mission.

No agent has been found more apt for the progress of civilisation than commercial relations. Their development requires everywhere order and stability; but in Asia it demands a complete transformation of the habits of the people. The first thing to be taught to the populations of Asia is that they will gain more in favouring and protecting the caravan trade than in robbing it. These elementary ideas can only be accepted by the public where one exists; that is to say, where there is some organised form of society and a government to direct and represent it.

We are accomplishing the first part of our task in carrying our frontier to the limit where the indispensable conditions are to be found.

The second we shall accomplish in making every effort henceforward to prove to our neighbouring states, by a system of firmness in the repression of their misdeeds, combined with moderation and justice in the use of our strength, and respect for their independence, that Russia is not their enemy, that she entertains towards them no ideas of conquest, and that peaceful and commercial relations with her are more profitable than disorder, pillage, reprisals, and a permanent state of war.

The Imperial Cabinet, in assuming this task, takes as its guide the interests of Russia. But it believes that, at the same time, it is promoting the interests of humanity and civilisation. It has a right to expect that the line of conduct it pursues and the principles which guide it will meet with a just and candid appreciation.

(Signed) Gortchakow.

TREATY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND BOKHARA (1873)

Concluded between General Aide-de-Camp Kauffman, Governor-General of Turkestan, and Seid Mozaffur, Amir of Bokhara.

(1) The frontier between the dominions of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias and his Highness the Amir of Bokhara remains unchanged.

The Khivan territory on the right bank of the Amu Daria having been incorporated in the Russian Empire, the former frontier between Khiva and Bokhara, from the oasis of Khelata to Gugertli, is abolished. The territory between the former Bokharo-Khivan frontier on the right bank of the Amu Daria from Gugertli to Meschekli, and from Meschekli to the point of junction of the former Bokharo-Khivan frontier with the frontier of the Russian Empire, is incorporated in the dominions of the Amir of Bokhara.

(2) The right bank of the Amu Daria being severed from the Khanate of Khiva, the caravan routes leading north from Bokhara into the Russian dominions traverse exclusively the territories of Bokhara and Russia. The Governments of Russia and Bokhara, each within its own territory, shall watch over the safety of these caravan routes and of the trade thereupon.

(3) Russian steamers, and other Russian vessels, whether belonging to the Government or to private individuals, shall have the right of free navigation on that portion of the Amu Daria which belongs to the Amir of Bokhara.

(4) The Russians shall have the right to establish piers and warehouses in such places upon the Bokharan banks of the Amu Daria as may be judged necessary and convenient for that purpose. The Bokharan Government shall be responsible for the safety of these erections. The final and definite selection of localities shall rest with the supreme Russian authorities in Central Asia.

(5) All the towns and villages of the Khanate of Bokhara shall be open to Russian trade. Russian traders and caravans shall have free passage throughout the Khanate, and shall enjoy the special protection of the local authorities. The Bokharan Government shall be responsible for the safety of Russian caravans on Bokharan territory.

(6) All merchandise belonging to Russian traders, whether imported from Russia to Bokhara or exported from Bokhara to Russia, shall be subject to an ad valorem duty of 2½ per cent., in the same manner as an ad valorem duty of ⅟40 is charged in the Russian province of Turkestan. No other tax, duty, or impost whatsoever shall be imposed thereupon.

(7) Russian traders shall have the right to transport their merchandise through Bokhara free of transit dues.

(8) Russian traders shall have the right to establish caravanserais for the storage of merchandise in all Bokharan towns. The same right is accorded to Bokharan traders in the towns of the Russian province of Turkestan.

(9) Russian traders shall have the right to keep commercial agents in all the towns of Bokhara, in order to watch over the progress of trade and the levying of duties, and to enter into communications with the local authorities thereupon. The same right is accorded to Bokharan traders in the towns of the Russian province of Turkestan.

(10) All commercial engagements between Russians and Bokharans shall be held sacred, and shall be faithfully carried out by both parties. The Bokharan Government shall undertake to keep watch over the honest fulfilment of all such engagements, and over the fair and honourable conduct of commercial affairs in general.

(11) Russian subjects shall have the right, in common with the subjects of Bokhara, to carry on all branches of industry and handicraft on Bokharan territory that are sanctioned by the law of Sharigat. Bokharan subjects shall have a similar right to practise all such occupations on Russian territory as are sanctioned by the law of Russia.

(12) Russian subjects shall have the right to acquire gardens, cultivate lands, and own every species of real property in the Khanate. Such property shall be subject to the same land tax as Bokharan property. The same right shall be enjoyed by Bokharan subjects in the whole territory of the Russian Empire.

(13) Russian subjects shall have the right to enter Bokharan territory when furnished with permits, signed by the Russian authorities. They shall have the right of free passage throughout the Khanate, and shall enjoy the special protection of the Bokharan authorities.

(14) The Bokharan Government shall not in any case admit on to Bokharan territory any foreigners, of whatever nationality, arriving from Russian territory, unless they be furnished with special permits signed by the Russian authorities. If a criminal, being a Russian subject, takes refuge on Bokharan territory, he shall be arrested by the Bokharan authorities and delivered over to the nearest Russian authorities.

(15) In order to maintain direct and uninterrupted relations with the supreme Russian authorities in Central Asia, the Amir of Bokhara shall appoint one of his intimate counsellors to be his resident envoy and plenipotentiary at Tashkent. Such envoy shall reside at Tashkent in a house belonging to the Amir and at the expense of the latter.

(16) The Russian Government shall in like manner have the right to appoint a permanent representative at Bokhara, attached to the person of his Highness the Amir. He shall reside in a house belonging to the Russian Government and at the expense of the latter.

(17) In conformity with the desire of the Emperor of All the Russias, and in order to enhance the glory of his Imperial Majesty, his Highness the Amir Seid Mozaffur has determined as follows: The traffic in human beings, being contrary to the law which commands man to love his neighbour, is abolished for ever in the territory of Bokhara. In accordance with this resolve, the strictest injunctions shall immediately be given by the Amir to all his Begs to enforce the new law and special orders shall be sent to all the frontier towns of Bokhara to which slaves are brought for sale from neighbouring countries, that should any such slave be brought thither, they shall be taken from their owners and shall be set at liberty without loss of time.

(18) His Highness the Amir Seid Mozaffur, being sincerely desirous of strengthening and developing the amicable relations which have subsisted for five years to the benefit of Bokhara, approves and accepts for his guidance the above seventeen articles composing a treaty of friendship between Russia and Bokhara. This treaty shall consist of two copies, each copy being written in the two languages, in the Russian and in the Turki language.

In token of the confirmation of this treaty and of its acceptance for the guidance of himself and of his successors, the Amir Seid Mozaffur has affixed thereto his seal. Done at Shaar on the 10th day of October 1873, being the 19th day of the month Shayban of the year 1290.

Translations of letters[46] from Adjutant-General von Kauffman, Governor-General of Turkestan, to the Amir of Afghanistan.

Tashkent, June 1878.

To the Amir of the Whole of Afghanistan, Shir Ali Khan.

“Be it known to you that our relations with the British Government are of great importance to Afghanistan and its dependencies. As I am unable to see you, I have deputed my trustworthy (official) General Stolietoff to you. The General is an old friend of mine, and during the late Russo-Turkish war earned the favour of the Emperor by his spirit and bravery. He has become well known to the Emperor. This trustworthy person will communicate to you what he thinks best. I hope you will pay attention to what he says, and repose as much confidence in his words as if they were my own; and that you will give your answer in this matter through him. In the meantime, be it known to you that if a friendly treaty will be of benefit to us, it will be of far greater benefit to yourself.”

Received through General Stolietoff, August 9, 1878.

“Be it known to you that in these days the relations between the British Government and ours with regard to your kingdom require deep consideration. As I am unable to communicate my opinion verbally to you, I have deputed my agent, Major-General Stolietoff. This gentleman is a near friend of mine, and performed excellent services in the late Russo-Turkish war, by which he earned favour of the Emperor. The Emperor has always had a regard for him. He will inform you of all that is hidden in my mind. I hope you will pay great attention to what he says, and believe him as you would myself, and, after due consideration, you will give him your reply. Meanwhile, be it known to you that your union and friendship with the Russian Government will be beneficial to the latter, and still more so to you. The advantages of a close alliance with the Russian Government will be permanently evident.”

General Stolietoff sent the following letter, on his return to Tashkent from Kabul, to the Foreign Minister, Wazir Shah Mahommed Khan, dated September 21, 1878:

“Thank God, I reached Tashkent safely, and at an auspicious moment paid my respect to the Viceroy (Yaroni Padishah means ‘half king’). I am trying day and night to gain our objects, and hope I shall be successful. I am starting to see the Emperor to-day, in order to inform his Majesty personally of our affairs. If God pleases, everything that is necessary will be done and affirmed. I hope that those who want to enter the gate of Kabul from the east will see that the door is closed; then, please God, they will tremble. I hope you will give my respects to his Highness the Amir. May God make his life long and increase his wealth! May you remain in good health, and know that the protection of God will arrange our affairs!

“(Signed) General Stolietoff.”

From General von Kauffman to the Amir of Afghanistan, dated Tashkent, October 22, 1878.

“Be it known to you that your letter, dated 12th Shawal, reached me at Tashkent on the 16th October, i.e., 3rd Zekada, and I understood its contents. I have telegraphed an abstract of your letter to the address of the Emperor, and have sent the letter itself, as also that addressed to General Stolietoff, by post to Livadia, where the Emperor now is. I am informed on good authority that the English want to come to terms with you; and, as a friend, I advise you to make peace with them if they offer it.”

From General Stolietoff to Wazir Shah Mahommed Khan, dated October 8, 1878.

“First of all, I hope you will be kind enough to give my respects to the Amir. May God make his life long and increase his wealth! I shall always remember his royal hospitality. I am busy day and night in his affairs, and, thank God, my labours have not been without result. The great Emperor is a true friend of the Amir’s and of Afghanistan, and his Majesty will do whatever he may think necessary. Of course, you have not forgotten what I told you, that the affairs of kingdoms are like a country which has many mountains, valleys, and rivers. One who sits on a high mountain can see things well. By the power and order of God, there is no empire equal to that of our great Emperor. May God make his life long! Therefore, whatever our Government advises you, you should give ear to it. I tell you the truth that our Government is wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. There are many things which you cannot understand, but our Government understands them well. It often happens that a thing which is unpleasant at first is regarded as a blessing afterwards. Now, my kind friend, I inform you that the enemy of your famous religion wants to make peace with you through the Kaisar (Sultan) of Turkey. Therefore, you should look to your brothers who live on the other side of the river. If God stirs them up, and gives the sword of fight into their hands, then go on in the name of God (Bismilla), otherwise you should be as a serpent; make peace openly, and in secret prepare for war, and when God reveals His order to you, declare yourself. It will be well, when the Envoy of your enemy wants to enter the country, if you send an able emissary, possessing the tongue of a serpent and full of deceit, to the enemy’s country, so that he may with sweet words perplex the enemy’s mind, and induce him to give up the intention of fighting with you.

“My kind friend, I entrust you to the protection of God. May God be the protector of the Amir’s kingdom, and may trembling fall upon the limbs of your enemies! Amen.

“Write to me soon, and send the letter to the capital. Please write in Arabic characters, so that I may be able to read your letter.”

From General von Kauffman to the Amir of Afghanistan, dated November 26, 1878.

“I was much pleased to receive your letter, dated 24th Zekada, 1295 (November 18, 1878), and to hear of your good health. I have also received a copy of the letter which you sent to the Governor-General. May God be pleased with you. The British Ministers have given a pledge to our Ambassador in London that they will not interfere with the independence of Afghanistan. I am directed by his Majesty the Emperor to communicate this news to you, and then, after forming friendship, to go to his Majesty. I intend to go to the Russian capital after I have arranged the affairs of this country (Turkestan). As I do not consider it advisable to keep your trusted officials, whom you are in want of, here any more, I send Mahommed Hassan Khan, Kamuah (Deputy-Governor), and Gholam Haidar Khan, with two officers, back to you. I hope you will consider me a well-wisher of your kingdom, and write to me now and then. I have given instructions that, until my return, every letter of yours which they receive at Turkestan should be forwarded to the capital. Your good fortune is a cause of happiness to me, and if any troubles come upon you, I also shall be grieved. Some presents have been sent by me through Mirza Mahommed Hassan, Kamuah; perhaps they may be accepted.”

Translation of a letter from General von Kauffman to General Vozgonoff, dated December, 1878.

“The Amir knows perfectly well that it is impossible for me to assist him with troops in winter. Therefore, it is necessary that war should not be commenced at this unseasonable time. If the English, in spite of the Amir’s exertions to avoid the war, commence it, you must then take leave of the Amir and start for Tashkent, because your presence in Afghanistan in winter is useless. Moreover, at such a juncture as the commencement of war in Afghanistan, you ought to come here and explain the whole thing to me, so that I may communicate it to the Emperor. This will be of great benefit to Afghanistan and to Russia.”

From General von Kauffman to the Amir of Afghanistan, dated December 25, 1878.

“Your letter, dated 27th Zel Hijja (November 20, 1878), has reached me. I was pleased to hear tidings of your good health. The Emperor has caused the British Government to agree to the continuance of Afghan independence. The English Ministers have promised this. I earnestly request you not to leave your kingdom. As far as possible, consider your own interests, and do not lose your independence. For the present come to terms with the British Government. If you do not want to go back to Kabul for this purpose, you can write to your son, Mahommed Yakub Khan, to make peace with the English as you may direct him. Do not leave the soil of Afghanistan at this time, because it will be of benefit to you. My words are not without truth, because your arrival in Russian territory will make things worse.”

From General von Kauffman to the Amir of Afghanistan, received at Mazar-i-Sharif on January 17, 1879.

“I have received your friendly letter, dated 13th Zel Hijja (December 8, 1878). In that letter you asked me to send as many troops as could be got ready. I have written to you a letter to the effect that the Emperor, on account of your troubles, had communicated with the British Government, and that the Russian Ambassador at London had obtained a promise from the British Ministers to the effect that they would not injure the independence of Afghanistan. Perhaps you sent your letter before you got mine. Now, I have heard that you have appointed your son, Mahommed Yakub, as your Regent, and have come out of Kabul with some troops. I have received an order from the Emperor to the effect that it is impossible to assist you with troops now. I hope you will be fortunate. It all depends on the decree of God. Believe me, that the friendship which I made with you will be perpetual. It is necessary to send back General Vozgonoff and his companions. You can keep Dr. Yuralski with you if you please. No doubt the doctor will be of use to you and to your dependents. I hope our friendship will continue to be strengthened, and that intercourse will be carried on between us.”

From General von Kauffman to the Amir Shir Ali, dated December 29, 1878.

“The Foreign Minister, General Gortchakow, has informed me by telegraph that the Emperor has directed me to trouble you to come to Tashkent for the present. I therefore communicate this news to you with great pleasure; at the same time, I may mention that I have received no instructions about your journey to St. Petersburg. My personal interview with you will increase our friendship greatly.”

Letter from Major-General Ivanoff, Governor of Zerafshan, to the Heir-Apparent, Mahommed Musa Khan, and others.

“On the 26th of Rabi-ul-Awul, at an auspicious moment, I received your letter which you sent me, and understood its contents. I was very much pleased, and at once communicated it to General Kauffman, the Governor-General. With regard to what you wrote about the friendly relations between the Russian and Afghan Governments, and your own desire for friendship, I have the honour to state that we are also desirous of being friends. The friendship between the two Governments existed in the time of the late Amir, and I hope that it will be increased and strengthened by Amir Mahommed Yakub Khan.

“May God change the wars in your country to happiness; may peace reign in it; and may your Government be strengthened! I have been forwarding all your letters to the Governor-General, General Kauffman. May God keep you safe!

“The Zerafshan Province Governor,
“Major-General Ivanoff.”

Written and sealed by the General.

Written on March 29, 1879.

Treaty between the Russian Government and Amir Shir Ali Khan, written from memory by Mirza Mahommed Nabbi.

(1) The Russian Government engages that the friendship of the Russian Government with the Government of Amir Shir Ali Khan, Amir of All Afghanistan, will be a permanent and perpetual one.

(2) The Russian Government engages that, as Sirdar Abdulla Khan, son of the Amir, is dead, the friendship of the Russian Government with any person whom the Amir may appoint Heir-Apparent to the throne of Afghanistan, and with the heir of the Heir-Apparent, will remain firm and perpetual.

(3) The Russian Government engages that if any foreign enemy attacks Afghanistan, and the Amir is unable to drive him out, and asks the assistance of the Russian Government, the Russian Government will repel the enemy, either by means of advice or by such other means as it may consider proper.

(4) The Amir of Afghanistan will not wage war with any foreign Power without consulting the Russian Government, and without its permission.

(5) The Amir of Afghanistan engages that he will always report in a friendly manner to the Russian Government what goes on in his kingdom.

(6) The Amir of Afghanistan will communicate every wish and important affair of his to General Kauffman, Governor-General of Turkestan, and the Governor-General will be authorised by the Russian Government to fulfil the wishes of the Amir.

(7) The Russian Government engages that the Afghan merchants who may trade and sojourn in Russian territory will be safe from wrong, and that they will be allowed to carry away their profits.

(8) The Amir of Afghanistan will have the power to send his servants to Russia to learn arts and trades, and the Russian officers will treat them with consideration and respect as men of rank.

(9) (Does not remember.)

(10) I, Major-General Stolietoff Nicholas, being a trusted Agent of the Russian Government, have made the above-mentioned Articles between the Russian Government and the Government of Amir Shir Ali Khan, and have put my seal to them.

Correspondence between the British and Russian Governments Respecting the Exclusion of Afghanistan from the Russian sphere of influence, and settling the Russo-Afghan Frontier of 1872 and 1887.

From time to time the Russian Government has given a series of assurances that whatever its action in other respects may have been, it regarded Afghanistan as entirely beyond its sphere of action.

In March 1869, the Earl of Clarendon, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, informed the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg that he had received communication of a despatch addressed by the Russian Chancellor, Prince Gortchakow, to the Russian Ambassador in London, containing the following declaration:

“You may repeat to her Britannic Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State the positive assurance that his Imperial Majesty looks upon Afghanistan as completely outside the sphere within which Russia may be called upon to exercise her influence. No intervention or interference whatever, opposed to the independence of that State, enters into his intentions.”

On October 17, 1872, Earl Granville addressed to Lord Loftus, Ambassador at St. Petersburg, the following letter upon the Russo-Afghan frontier.

“Her Majesty’s Government I have not yet received from the Cabinet of St. Petersburg communication of the report which General Kauffman was long since instructed to draw up on the countries south of the Oxus, which are claimed by the ruler of Afghanistan as his hereditary possessions. Her Majesty’s Government have awaited this communication in full confidence that impartial inquiries instituted by that distinguished officer would confirm the views they themselves take of this matter, and so enable the two Governments to come to a prompt and definitive decision on the question that has been so long in discussion between them. But as the expected communication has not reached them, and as they consider it of importance, both for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in Central Asia, and for removing all causes of misunderstanding between the Imperial Government and themselves, I will no longer delay making known, through your Excellency, to the Imperial Government the conclusion at which her Majesty’s Government have arrived, after carefully weighing all the evidence before them. In the opinion, then, of her Majesty’s Government, the right of the Amir of Kabul (Shir Ali) to the possession of the territories up to the Oxus as far down as Khoja Saleh is fully established, and they believe, and have so stated to him through the Indian Government, that he would have a right to defend these territories if invaded. On the other hand, her Majesty’s authorities in India have declared their determination to remonstrate strongly with the Amir should he evince any disposition to overstep these limits of his kingdom. Hitherto the Amir has proved most amenable to the advice offered to him by the Indian Government, and has cordially accepted the peaceful policy which they have recommended him to adopt, because the Indian Government have been able to accompany their advice with an assurance that the territorial integrity of Afghanistan would in like manner be respected by those Powers beyond his frontiers which are amenable to the influence of Russia. The policy thus happily inaugurated has produced the most beneficial results in the establishment of peace in the countries where it has long been unknown. Her Majesty’s Government believe that it is now in the power of the Russian Government, by an explicit recognition of the right of the Amir of Kabul to these territories which he now claims, which Bokhara herself admits to be his, and which all evidence as yet produced shows to be in his actual and effectual possession, to assist the British Government in perpetuating, so far as it is in human power to do so, the peace and prosperity of those regions, and in removing for ever by such means all cause of uneasiness and jealousy between England and Russia in regard to their respective policies in Asia.

“For your Excellency’s more complete information I state the territories and boundaries which her Majesty’s Government consider as fully belonging to the Amir of Kabul, viz.:

“(1) Badakshan, with its dependent district of Wakhan, from the Sarikal (Wood’s Lake) on the east, to the junction of the Kokcha river with the Oxus (or Penjah), forming the northern boundary of this Afghan province throughout its entire extent.

“(2) Afghan Turkestan, comprising the districts of Kunduz, Khulm, and Balkh, the northern boundary of which would be the line of the Oxus from the junction of the Kokcha river to the post of the Khoja Saleh, inclusive, on the high road from Bokhara to Balkh. Nothing to be claimed by the Afghan Amir on the left bank of the Oxus below Khoja Saleh.

“(3) The internal districts of Aksha, Saripool, Maimana, Shibherfan, and Andkoi, the latter of which would be the extreme Afghan frontier possession to the north-west, the desert beyond belonging to independent tribes of Turcomans.

“(4) The western Afghan frontier between the dependencies of Herat and those of the Persian province of Khorassan is well known and need not here be defined. Your Excellency will give a copy of this despatch to the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

“I am, etc.,
“Granville.”

(Reply)
Prince Gortchakow to Count Brunnow (communicated to Earl Granville by Count Brunnow, February 5, 1873).

“St. Petersburg,
“January 31, 1873.

“M. le Comte,—Lord Augustus Loftus has communicated to me the reply of her Britannic Majesty’s principal Secretary of State to our despatch on Central Asia of the 19th December.

“I enclose a copy of his document.

“We see with satisfaction that the English Cabinet continues to pursue in those parts the same object as ourselves, that of ensuring to them peace, and as far as possible, tranquillity. The divergence which existed in our views was with regard to the frontiers assigned to the dominions of Shir Ali. The English Cabinet includes within them Badakshan and Wakhan, which, according to our views, enjoyed a certain independence. Considering the difficulty experienced in establishing the facts in all their details in those distant parts, considering the greater facilities which the British Government possesses for collecting precise data, and, above all, considering our wish not to give to this question of detail greater importance than is due to it, we do not refuse to accept the line of boundary laid down by England. We are the more inclined to this act of courtesy as the English Government engages to use all her influence with Shir Ali in order to induce him to maintain a peaceful attitude, as well as to insist on his giving up all measures of aggression or further conquests. This influence is indisputable. It is based not only on the material and moral ascendency of England, but also on the subsidies for which Shir Ali is indebted to her. Such being the case, we see in his assurance a real guarantee for the maintenance of peace. Your Excellency will have the goodness to make this declaration to her Britannic Majesty’s principal Secretary of State, and to give him a copy of this despatch. We are convinced that Lord Granville will perceive in it a fresh proof of the value which our august master attaches to the maintenance and consolidation of the most friendly relations with the Government of her Majesty Queen Victoria.

“(Signed) Gortchakow.”

In 1874, after the annexation of Khiva to the Russian dominions, Earl Granville wrote, on January 7, as follows, to her Majesty’s Ambassador in St. Petersburg, summing up the previous correspondence which had passed between the two Governments:

Earl Granville to Lord A. Loftus.

[Extract.]

“Foreign Office,
“January 7, 1874.

“Her Majesty’s Government see no practical advantage in examining too minutely how far these arrangements (between the Russian Government and the Khan of Khiva) are in strict accordance with the assurances given to me in January last by Count Schouvalow, as to the intentions with which the expedition against Khiva was undertaken. They are not disposed to share in the exaggerated apprehensions which have at times been expressed in this country as to the danger to British rule in India which may arise from the extension of Russian influence in Central Asia.

“At the same time each step of that progress renders it more desirable that a clear and frank understanding should continue to exist between the two countries as to the relative position of British and Russian interests in Asia, and it is with that object that her Majesty’s Government think it right on the present occasion to review the communications which have passed on the subject, and the position of affairs as they stand in respect of the future. In so doing they are fulfilling the wish expressed by Prince Gortchakow, in conversation with Sir A. Buchanan, on the 2nd of November, 1869, when he begged that Lord Clarendon might be told that, ‘as both Governments are free from all arrière-pensées, ambitious views, or unfriendly feelings towards each other, the more fully and frankly all questions connected with Central Asia are discussed between them, the more effectually will the ‘mists’ be blown away, which, through the misrepresentations of over-zealous subordinate agents, may at any time hang over them.’

“In the spring of 1869 Lord Clarendon, in several conversations with Baron Brunnow, drew attention to the rapid progress of the Russian troops in Central Asia, and made a proposal for the ‘recognition of some territory as neutral between the possessions of England and Russia, which should be the limit of those possessions, and which should be scrupulously respected by both Powers.’

“Prince Gortchakow, to whom Baron Brunnow had communicated Lord Clarendon’s suggestions, replied that ‘the idea of maintaining between the possessions of the two Empires in Asia a zone to preserve them from any contact’ had always been shared by the Emperor, and he authorised Baron Brunnow to ‘repeat to her Britannic Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State the positive assurance that his Imperial Majesty looks upon Afghanistan as completely outside the sphere within which Russia may be called upon to exercise her influence. No intervention or interference whatever, opposed to the independence of that State, enters into his intentions.’

“Her Majesty’s Government gladly take this opportunity of again acknowledging the friendly and conciliatory spirit shown by the Imperial Government in the acceptance by them of the views advanced on the part of Great Britain, as to the frontier line of Afghanistan. Those views were stated, as you are aware, in my despatch to your Excellency of October 17, 1872, and the assent of the Imperial Government to the definition of the Afghan frontier as therein laid down, will be found in Prince Gortchakow’s despatches to Baron Brunnow of December 7, 1872, and January 19, 1873.

“Such was the agreement arrived at between the two countries. On their part, her Majesty’s Government may fairly claim that it has been faithfully executed to the full extent of their power.

“It is unnecessary to retrace the series of circumstances which, in spite of the reluctance of the Russian Government, led to the recent expedition against Khiva. In the face of these events it would be unwise not to contemplate the possibility that considerations of self-defence, or the necessity of punishing acts of plunder and hostility, may eventually give occasion for a Russian expedition against the Turkoman tribes.

“In face of the agreement which exists between the two countries, it is unnecessary for her Majesty’s Government to make any profession of their conviction that Afghanistan is perfectly secure from any hostile designs on the part of Russia. They think it best, however, to bring the fears entertained by the Amir to the knowledge of the Russian Government, and to express their earnest hope that the question of any further expedition against the Turkoman tribes may be carefully considered, in conjunction with the results which the Amir of Kabul apprehends may ensue from it. They think it right to state candidly and at once that the independence of Afghanistan is regarded by them as a matter of great importance to the welfare and security of British India and to the tranquillity of Asia.”

Prince Gortchakow replied on January 21, 1874, to his Ambassador in London:

Prince Gortchakow to Count Brunnow (communicated to Earl Granville by Count Brunnow, February 17).

[Extract.]

“St. Petersburg, January 21.

“I have expressed to the British Ambassador the entire satisfaction which we feel at the just view taken by her Majesty’s Government with regard to the questions which we are called upon to treat together in Asia.

“In my opinion the understanding is complete. It rests not only upon the loyalty of the two Governments, but upon mutual political advantages which are palpably evident. So long as they shall be animated by a spirit of mutual goodwill and conciliation, no political misunderstanding is to be apprehended between them.

“For our part, we remain constantly faithful to the programme traced by mutual agreement, as resulted from my interviews with Lord Clarendon, and as developed and defined by the communications between the two Cabinets.

“I have repeated to Lord A. Loftus the positive assurance that the Imperial Cabinet continues to consider Afghanistan as entirely beyond its sphere of action.

“If on either side the two Governments exercise their ascendency over the States placed within the range of their natural influence in order to deter them from all aggression, there is reason to hope that no violent collision will occur to disturb the repose of Central Asia, and interfere with the work of civilisation which it is the duty and the interest of the two great Empires to bring to a favourable issue.

“Be good enough to communicate these observations to Lord Granville, and to repeat to his Excellency our conviction that the two Governments have an equal interest in not allowing their good relations to be disturbed by the intrigues of Asiatic Khans, and that so long as they both act together with a feeling of mutual confidence and goodwill, the tranquillity of Central Asia will be sufficiently guaranteed against all eventualities.”

On January 28, 1874, the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg reported to Lord Granville a further assurance given to him by the Russian Chancellor:

Lord A. Loftus to Earl Granville.

[Extract.]

“St. Petersburg,
“January 19, 1874.

“As regards Afghanistan, his Highness repeated to me that the Imperial Government considered that kingdom to be beyond the sphere of their political action, and that, happen what might, in the internal state of that country, the Imperial Government would not interfere.”

In 1876, after the occupation of Khokand by the Russians, Prince Gortchakoff instructed the Russian Ambassador to communicate the following despatch to her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs:

Prince Gortchakow to Count Schuvaloff (communicated to the Earl of Derby by Count Schuvaloff, February 25, 1876).

[Extract]

“St. Petersburg, February 3,15, 1876.

“His Majesty the Emperor has learned with much interest the contents of the Memorandum accompanying a despatch from Lord Derby, which Lord A. Loftus read, in my absence, to the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs.

“I enclose herewith a copy of this document, which is a reply to the Memorandum dated the 11th May, 1875, which your Excellency was instructed to communicate to the Principal Secretary of State of her Britannic Majesty regarding the relations of the two Governments in Central Asia.

“Our august Master has learnt with satisfaction the friendly desire therein expressed to prevent, by frank explanations, any cause of misunderstanding between the two Cabinets. His Majesty appreciates likewise the breadth of view with which Lord Derby puts on one side discussions of detail and restrictions which are inapplicable in view of the ill-defined condition of the countries over which the two Governments have to exercise their influence.

“Have the goodness to inform his Excellency, by order of our august Master, that we entirely agree in the conclusion that, while maintaining on either side, the arrangement come to as regards the limits of Afghanistan, which is to remain outside the sphere of Russian action, the two Cabinets should regard as terminated the discussions relative to the intermediate zone, which have been recognised as unpractical; that, while retaining entire freedom of action, they should be guided by a mutual desire to pay due regard to their respective interests and necessities, by avoiding, as far as possible, any immediate contact with each other, and any collisions between the Asiatic States placed within the circle of their influence.

“We are convinced that by keeping to this principle, and cultivating feelings of equity and reciprocal goodwill, the two Cabinets will succeed in consolidating the friendly relations so happily established between them, for the advantage of the general peace in Europe and Asia.

“Your Excellency can renew to Lord Derby the assurance that he may reckon on our frank co-operation for this purpose.”

After drawing the attention of the Russian Government, at the end of 1876, to the correspondence exchanged between General Kauffman and the Amir of Kabul, the British Ambassador received the following further assurance:

M. de Giers to Lord A. Loftus.

“St. Petersburg, February 21,March 5, 1877.

“The Imperial Government entirely share the opinion of the British Government that a frank and cordial interchange of opinions on the question of Central Asia cannot do otherwise than contribute to the maintenance of the good and friendly relations at present established between Russia and England.

“With this view they felt ready to give, in the Notes of the 19th November1st December and the  3rd15th December, to which your Excellency refers, the assurance that Russia had not endeavoured to conclude any arrangement, commercial or political, with the Amir of Kabul, and that the rare relations of our authorities in Central Asia with the latter had never borne any other character than that of pure courtesy, in conformity with local usages in the East. While now renewing these assurances, the Imperial Government hope the British Government will recognise that practically we have never swerved from them, whatever may have been the erroneous interpretations placed by the native Asiatic Governments on the communications of General Kauffman, and whatever false importance may have been attributed to the method of transmission adopted by him. Misunderstandings on this subject were nearly inevitable, considering the uncertain character of the native populations of Central Asia, and their inveterate inclination to intrigue; the only effective way, in our opinion, of meeting this danger, lies in the good faith and loyalty which, we are glad to think, will never cease to influence, on either side, any interchange of views between us and the British Cabinet.”

The following Notes were exchanged between the Russian Ambassador in London and Lord Salisbury before General Stolietoff’s final recall from Kabul after the conclusion of the Congress of Berlin:

Count Schuvaloff to the Marquis of Salisbury

London, December 7,19, 1878.

“You have expressed surprise on learning that the Russian mission, which you thought had left Kabul, was still there. You reminded me of the declaration made by M. de Giers to the British Chargé d’Affaires concerning the provisional character of this mission, which was despatched under exceptional circumstances, and at a time when it was to be feared that war might break out between England and Russia.

“I have received a telegram from Prince Gortchakow, in which he charges me to ask you whether the arrangements between Russia and England, such as they existed before the despatch of the mission, and such as they are recorded in the correspondence exchanged on this subject between the two Cabinets, are maintained by her Majesty’s Government, and whether they retain in their eyes their obligatory character.

“His Majesty the Emperor is disposed, on his part, to observe all the arrangements relative to Central Asia concluded between Russia and England, and to recall immediately the mission which is at Kabul.”

The Marquis of Salisbury to Count Schuvaloff.

“Foreign Office,
“December 19, 1878.

“In reply to your letter of this day’s date, I have to state to your Excellency that the continued presence of the Russian Mission at Kabul is the sole obstacle to a full revival of the understanding between the two Powers expressed in the correspondence which has passed between them upon the subject of Afghanistan and Central Asia; and when the Russian Mission is withdrawn, her Majesty’s Government will consider that all engagements on both sides with respect to those countries retain their obligatory character.”

In 1882 the position of the two countries in Asia was again discussed in connection with the Russian advance to Merv.

Earl Granville to Sir E. Thornton.

“Foreign Office,
February 22, 1882.

“The Russian Ambassador called upon me this afternoon by appointment. His Excellency told me that he had reported to his Government the substance of the conversation we had had on the 2nd instant on the policy of the two Governments in Asia, as reported in my despatch of that date.

“Prince Lobanow said that he had told his Government that I had commenced by stating that the present good relations between Russia and England offered an opportunity, of which it was desirable to take advantage, for coming to some further understanding as to the position of the two countries in Central Asia; that he had thereupon suggested a renewal of the agreement formerly made with Prince Gortchakow by Lord Clarendon and me; that to this I had replied that I looked upon that agreement as still existing in full force, but that it left certain matters undecided which it would be well definitely to settle; and that I had finished by proposing a delimitation of the Persian frontier from Baba Durmaz to a point in the neighbourhood of the Hari Rud.

“He had now received the reply of his Government. They acknowledged the continued validity of the agreement formerly entered into by Prince Gortchakow, by which Afghanistan was admitted to be beyond the sphere of Russian influence. That agreement was, however, as I had said, incomplete: and they were ready to supplement it by a settlement of the frontier of Afghanistan, from the point where it had been left undefined as far as Sarakhs.”

In 1883 the following correspondence took place:

Earl Granville to Mr. J. G. Kennedy.

“Foreign Office,
“October 2, 1883.

“A report has reached her Majesty’s Government of an intended visit of a Russian to Kabul bearing a letter from the Emperor of Russia to the Amir.

“Such a proceeding on the part of the Russian Government would be inconsistent with the assurances which they have given to her Majesty’s Government from time to time on the subject of Afghanistan.

“I have to instruct you to inquire as to the truth of this report, and to inform me of the result by telegraph.”

Mr. J. G. Kennedy to Earl Granville.

“St. Petersburg, October 3, 1883.

“I have the honour to state that on receipt to-day of your Lordship’s telegram of the 2nd instant I immediately waited on M. de Giers at the Foreign Department, and inquired of his Excellency whether there was any truth in a report which had reached her Majesty’s Government that a Russian intended to go to Kabul, furnished with a letter to the Amir from the Emperor.

“M. de Giers at once replied that such an event was impossible. The Emperor was most unlikely to give any letter addressed to the Amir to any one. No such letter could be written without M. de Giers’ knowledge, and he could positively and solemnly assure me that no such letter had been written by his Imperial Majesty.

“M. de Giers further states that so anxious were the Emperor and himself to avoid all suspicion of Russian communication with Afghanistan, that strict orders had been sent to the Governor-General of Turkestan to desist from the transmission of letters of ceremony, or even of letters of recommendation, to the Amir in favour of travellers. In fact, all possible steps were taken to prevent intercourse between Russia and Afghanistan, which latter country was considered to be in England’s ‘orbit.’

“In reply to a suggestion of mine, M. de Giers stated that no such letter could have been written during the Moscow Coronation festivities, at which period the Emperor had been most guarded in all his dealings with the various Asiatic potentates there assembled.

“M. de Giers also promised to inform me at once whenever any intention existed of such an improbable event as the transmission of a letter from his Imperial Majesty to the Ruler of Afghanistan.”

In 1884, in view of inquiries made by the British Government as to the reported despatch of a Russian Agent to Maimana, within the frontiers of Afghanistan, M. de Giers communicated on April 1527 to the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg the following:

“The Imperial Ministry can, on the other hand, state that no agent has been sent to Maimana. According to the terms of the arrangement come to between the two Powers, Maimana is included in the country of the Amir of Afghanistan, and the Government of his Majesty the Emperor is resolved to scrupulously respect, as it has done in times past, all the engagements it contracted in virtue of the arrangement in question.”

In 1885 further disquieting reports having arisen with regard to the proceedings of the Russians on the Afghan frontier, the following Memorandum was communicated by the Russian Foreign Office to the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg:

“The Imperial Ministry for Foreign Affairs has taken note of the Memorandum which was transmitted by the English Ambassador on the 16th instant, and which contains the expression of the wish of her Majesty’s Government that the agitation raised in the two countries by the rumours about the preparations said to be in progress on both sides should cease.”

The same Memorandum states that, unless circumstances arise over which they have no control, which might bring about sudden changes, the two Governments are in a position which would allow them to arrive at an arrangement satisfactory and honourable for Russia, the Amir of Afghanistan, and England!

“The Imperial Cabinet cannot do less than join in this desire of her Majesty’s Government. They have never cherished, nor do they cherish, aggressive views on Herat, or any other part of the Amir’s possessions, and they only aim at contributing to the establishment of peace and security there. Resolved, as they are, to respect scrupulously the rights of Great Britain, as well as those of the Amir, the Imperial Cabinet hope that her Majesty’s Government will display the same regard for the rights of Russia, and they are convinced that the two Governments will thus succeed in avoiding everything which might interfere with a satisfactory solution of the question now under negotiation.

“St. Petersburg, March 18, 1885.”

The circumstances which had arisen made the arrangement of a Russo-Afghan Boundary Convention desirable, and it was agreed at St. Petersburg on July 10, 1887, that:

“(1) The frontier included between the pillars No. 1 and No. 19, and the pillars No. 36 and No. 65, should be considered as definitely settled. The trigonometrical points on the portion of the frontier line described above, and included between pillars No. 19 and No. 36, are likewise admitted as definitive. The description of this part of the frontier, as well as that of the part to the eastward of pillar No. 65, may be completed after the demarcation. The synopsis of pillars attached to Protocol No. 15, dated the 1st (13th) September, 1886, is admitted to be correct and definitive as regards pillars No. 1 to No. 19, and No. 36 to No. 65. It will be completed subsequently by the synopsis of the pillars from No. 20 to No. 35, and by that of the pillars to the east of No. 65.

“(2) Leaving pillar No. 19, the frontier shall follow a straight line up to the summit of the hill marked 2740 on map No. 1, annexed to the present Protocol. This point, where pillar No. 20 shall be placed, is known under the denomination of trigonometrical station of Kara Tepe (latitude 35° 17′ 49″, longitude 62° 15′ 17″). Farther on the line shall descend the crest of the hills, being directed from this point towards the confluence of the Kushk and the Moghur. Pillar No. 21 shall be placed on a point of this crest, or of its slope, so as to be seen from the confluence above-mentioned. A straight line shall connect No. 21 with No. 22, placed in the valley of the Kushk on the left bank of the river, 900 feet to the north of the confluence of the Kushk with the Moghur. Leaving pillar No. 22, the line shall ascend the thalweg of the Kushk to pillar No. 23, placed 2700 feet above the head of the new canal, on the right bank of which the water-supply is situated about 6000 feet to the N.N.E. of the Ziaret of Chahil-Dukhter. From pillar No. 23 a straight line shall be traced to the point marked 2925 on map No. 3 annexed to the present Protocol (latitude 35° 16′ 53″, longitude 62° 27′ 57″). Whence the frontier shall follow the line of the water-parting, passing through the following points: The point 3017 (Bandi Akhamar, latitude 35° 14′ 21″, longitude 62° 35′ 48″, pillar No. 26); the point 3198 (latitude 35° 14′ 20″, longitude 62° 41′ 0″, pillar No. 27); and the point Kalari 2 (latitude 35° 18′ 21″, longitude 62° 47′ 18″); and shall run on to the point marked No. 29 on map No. 4 annexed to the present Protocol. The frontier shall cross the valley of the river Kashan in a straight line between pillars No. 29 and No. 30 (trigonometrical station of Tori-Scheikh, latitude 35° 24′ 51″, longitude 62° 59′ 43″, map No. 3), where it meets the line of the water-parting of the Kashan and the Murghab, shall pass on to this latter, and shall follow it up to the trigonometrical station of the Kashan (latitude 35° 38′ 13″, longitude 63° 6′ 4″, pillar No. 32). From this station a straight line shall be traced to a point on the Murghab (pillar No. 35) situated 700 ft. above the canal-head of the canal Yaki-Yuz or Yaki-Yangi. Further on the frontier, descending the thalweg of the Murghab, shall join pillar No. 36 of the frontier demarcated in 1885-86. To the east of pillar No. 65 the frontier shall follow the line marked A B C D on map No. 8 annexed to the present Protocol, the point A being situated at a distance of 3500 ft. south of the walls of Tinam Nazar; the point B being near Kara Tepe Khurd-Kak, which remains to the Afghans; the point C about midway between the east and west walls of Katabadji; and lastly, the point D about midway between the wells Ali Kadim and the wells marked Chahi. The wells of Tinam Nazar, Kara-Tepe-Khurd, West Katabadji and Ali Kadim remain outside of Afghan territory. From the point D a straight line shall be traced as far as the commencement of the local frontier demarcated between Bosagha and Khamiab, which shall continue to serve as frontier between the two villages, with the single reservation that the canals of Bosagha along all their course, that is to say, as far as Koinli (point H), shall be included in Russian territory. In other words, the present demarcation will confirm the existing rights of the two parties on the banks of the Amu Daria, that is to say, that the inhabitants of Khamiah shall retain all their lands and all their pastures, including those which are east of the local frontier marked E F G on maps Nos. 9 and 10 annexed to the Protocol. On the other hand, the inhabitants of Bosagha shall retain the exclusive enjoyment of their canals as far as Koinli, with the right of repairing and supplying them, in accordance with the customs in force in regard to those of Khamiab, when the waters of Amu Daria are too low to supply directly the canal-heads of Koinli. The officers who shall be charged to execute on the spot the provisions of the present Protocol between the above-named pillars shall be bound to place a sufficient number of intermediate pillars, taking advantage for this purpose as much as possible of the salient points.

“(3) The clause in Protocol No. 4 of the 14th (26th) December, 1885 prohibiting the Afghans from making use of the irrigating canals in the Kushk valley below Chahil Dukhter, which were not in use at that time, remains in force; but it is understood that this clause can only be applied to the canals supplied by the Kushk. The Afghans shall not have the right to make use of the waters of the Kushk for their agricultural works north of Chahil Dukhter; but the waters of the Moghur belong exclusively to them, and they may carry out any works they may think necessary in order to make use of them.

“(4) The clauses in Protocols No. 4 of the 14th (26th) December, 1885, and No. 15 of the 1st (13th) September, 1886, relative to the construction of a dam on the Murghab, remain in force. M. Linoview having expressed the wish that the obligation imposed on the Amir of Afghanistan to give up for this purpose a tract of land on the right bank of the Murghab, under the conditions stipulated in the said Protocols, should be extended to the whole course of the river below the canal-head of Yaki-Yuz, Colonel Ridgeway is of opinion that the necessary steps to obtain the assent of the Amir might delay the conclusion of the present arrangement; but he is nevertheless convinced that the assent of the Amir to this cession, under the same conditions, of a tract of land on the right bank can be obtained without difficulty, if later on the Imperial Government should inform her Britannic Majesty’s Government of their intention of proceeding to the construction of a dam above the canal-head of Bendi Nadiri.

“(5) The British Government will communicate without delay to the Amir of Afghanistan the arrangements herein agreed upon, and the Imperial Government of Russia will enter into possession of the territory adjudged to them, by the present Protocol, from the 1st (13th) October of the present year.

“(6) The frontier agreed upon shall be locally demarcated by a mixed Commission according to the signed maps. In case the work of demarcation should be delayed, the line traced on the maps shall nevertheless be considered binding by the two Governments.”

[45] This letter, which is generally referred to as the letter from the Foreign Secretary, dated July 20, 1880, is known to have been sealed by Mr. Griffin and delivered by him on July 31, 1880.

[46] “Forty-One Years in India.”—Roberts.

APPENDIX V

A.—SUMMER SERVICE OF THE OXUS FLOTILLA

B Cost of passage for passengers from Charjui. C Voyage from Charjui to Patta Hissar. Points touched at. Voyage from Patta Hissar to Charjui. Cost of passage for passengers
from Patta Hissar.		 D E
1 Cl. 3 Cl. Arrive. Depart. Arrive. Depart. 1 Cl. 3 Cl.
R K R K Kop. R K R K Kop.
56  1 68 - 56 5,6 Thur. & Mon. Wed. & Sun. Charjui ⎫ ⎫ 12 99 4 33 43,3  433 
109  3 27 1 09 10,9 ”   ” Thur. & Mon. Natizin ⎪ ⎬Sat. & Mon. 11 31 3 77 37,7  377 
126  3 78 1 26 12,6 ”   ” ”   ” Burdalik ⎬Sat. & Mon. ⎪ 9 72 3 24 32,4  324 
151  4 53 1 51 15,1 Fri. & Tues. ”   ” Polvart ⎪ ⎭ 9 21 3 07 30,7  307 
212  6 36 2 12 21,3 ”   ” Fri. & Tues. Bashir ⎪ Fri. & Sun. 8 46 2 82 28,2  282 
233  6 99 2 33 23,3 ⎫ ⎧Karki ⎭ ⎫ 6 63 2 21 22,1  221 
225  7 65 2 55 25,5 ⎬Wednesday  Wednesday ⎨Kundalem ⎫ ⎪ 6 00 2 00 20,0  200 
271  8 13 2 71 27,1 ⎪ ⎪Mukri ⎬Sunday ⎬Sunday 5 34 1 78 17,8  178 
303  9 09 3 03 30,3 ⎭ ⎩Ak Kum ⎭ ⎭ 4 86 1 62 16,2  162 
322½ 9 98 3 33 33,25 Thursday Thursday Charshangu ⎫ ⎫ 3 90 1 30 13,0  130 
358½ 10 76 3 59 35,85 Thursday Thursday Kelif ⎪ ⎪ 3 02 1 10 10,05 100½
385  11 55 3 85 38,5 ⎫ ⎫ Kuyu Kara Mazar ⎬Saturday ⎬Saturday 2 24 - 75 7,45 74½
399  11 97 3 99 39,9 ⎬ Friday ⎬ Friday Chushka-Gisar ⎪ ⎪ 1 44 - 48 4,8  48 
404  12 12 4 04 40,4 ⎪ ⎪ Shur Ob ⎪ ⎪ 1 02 - 34 3,4  34 
433  12 99 4 33 4,33 ⎭ ⎭ Patta Hissar ⎭ ⎭ - 87 - 29 29,9  29 

B.—WINTER SERVICE OF THE OXUS FLOTILLA

Voyage from Charjui to Patta Hissar. Points touched at. Voyage from Patta Hissar Charjui.
Arrive. Depart. Arrive. Depart.
Monday Sunday Charjui Tuesday Tuesday
Tuesday Monday Narizim Tuesday Monday
Tuesday Tuesday Burdalik Monday Monday
Wednesday Wednesday Polvart Monday Sunday
Friday Wednesday Bashir Sunday Sunday
Friday Friday Karki Sunday Saturday
Saturday Saturday Kundalem Saturday Saturday
Sunday Saturday Mukri Saturday Saturday
Sunday Sunday Ak Kum Friday Friday
Monday Monday Charshangu Friday Friday
Tuesday Monday Kelif Friday Thursday
Tuesday Tuesday Kuyu Kara Mazar Thursday Thursday
Wednesday Wednesday Chuska Gisar Thursday Thursday
Wednesday Wednesday Kuyu Shur Ob Thursday Thursday
Wednesday Wednesday Chur Ob Thursday Thursday
Wednesday Wednesday Patta Hissar Thursday Thursday

APPENDIX VI

RETURN OF ARTICLES EXPORTED FROM RUSSIA TO KHORASSAN DURING THE PERIOD
MARCH 21, 1903, TO MARCH 20, 1904, COMPARED WITH 1900-03

Articles. Value. 1903-04. Destination of Imports.
1900-01. 1901-02. 1902-03. Quantity. Value.

Animals—		 £ £ £ £ Khorassan only, though many of the camels go to Azerbaijan. Specification of various animals was only kept at Meshed. Those here entered as “Unspecified” are animals that entered at Kuchan, and of which no detail was kept
Camels 592 858 8,198 Number 293 1,806⎫
Donkeys — 56 832 ” 47 73⎬
Horses — 584 2,901 ” 155 649⎪
Unspecified — — 94 ” 1,626 6,386⎭
Animal products, crude — — — Lbs. 232,700 2,926 Khorassan. Chiefly intestines and some silkworm eggs from France
Beer, vinegar, and other fermented beverages 122 221 319 ” 32,273 360⎫ ⎬Khorassan
Butter and other edible fats 62 195 967 ” 75,754 2,059⎭
Candles 2,283 2,139 2,726 ” 59,898 1,836 Khorassan, Seistan, Birjand, Yezd, Kerman, and Afghanistan
Carpets 506 348 248 ” 5,018 618 Khorassan. Chiefly Turkoman carpets
Chemical products — — 299 ” 85,593 1,086 Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, and Seistan
Cochineal 385 228 573 ” 34,775 1,377 Khorassan and Birjand
Copper and nickel, in sheets, bars, &c. — — 85 ” 1,697 58 Khorassan, Birjand, and Afghanistan
Copper, brass, and nickelwork — — 355 ” 38,279 2,669 Chiefly brasswork. Goes to Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, Yezd, Kerman, Seistan, and samovars (tea-urns) even to India
Cotton, raw — — — ” 6,045 126 Khorassan
Drugs 226 1,004 160 ” 15,048 640 Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, and Seistan
Dyes and varnishes 83 171 165 ” 14,600 321 Khorassan and Birjand
Earthenware and crockery 2,343 1,236 1,090 ” 123,507 3,208⎫ ⎬Khorassan, Afghanistan, Seistan, Birjand, Yezd, and Kerman
Fabrics of hemp and flax 4,746 2,764 3,858 ” 302,310 8,026⎭
Fish, fresh and salted 61 69 — ” 1,528 45⎫ Khorassan
Flour — — 232 ” 55,983 317⎬
Fruits— ⎪
Dried — — 620 ” 1,242 19⎭
Fresh 27 51 — ” 17,167 162 Khorassan. Lemons, oranges, &c., brought from Resht via Russia
Furniture 432 839 1,612 ” 76,174 1,994 Khorassan, Birjand, and Seistan
Glass, mirrors, &c. — — 1,077 ” 57,585 732⎫ ⎬Khorassan, Birjand, Seistan, and Afghanistan
Glassware 7,127 4,330 1,591 ” 148,909 3,520⎭
Gold and silver work — — 22 ” 1 127⎫ ⎬Khorassan
Grain, wheat, and barley 556 849 1,430 ” 408,909 1,888⎭
Iron in bars, &c., and scrap-iron 7,084 5,248 4,671 ” 1,084,090 7,646⎫ Khorassan, Birjand, Seistan, and Yezd
Iron and steel, manufactured 4,784 3,308 2,483 ” 225,713 5,845⎬
Lead, zinc, and tin in sheets and ingots — — 399 ” 32,474 972⎪
Leather work — — — ” 4,316 543⎭
Lemonade and fruit syrups 194 261 147 ” 28,966 214 Khorassan
Matches 573 5,127 2,005 ” 221,423 3,616 Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, Seistan, Yezd, and Kerman
Mercery and hardware 1,276 7,786 4,697 ” 25,266 2,590 Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, and Seistan
Minerals not specified 98 45 16 ” 3,679 61 Khorassan
Musical Instruments — — — ” 410 269 Khorassan and Birjand
Oil—
Petroleum 14,847 14,618 14,375 ” 4,007,985 19,619 Afghanistan, Khorassan, Birjand, Seistan, and Yezd
Other 14 37 248 ” 17,889 153 Khorassan
Papers and wares thereof 1,123 1,928 1,044 ” 71,189 1,908 Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, and Seistan
Printed matter — — 110 ” 5,480 270⎫ ⎬Khorassan
Provisions 4 7 2,217 ” 6,819 120⎭
Rice — 4,247 3,682 ” 2,329,587 22,878 Comes from Resht in Persia via Enzeli and Krasnovodsk to Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, and Seistan
Rope, &c. 87 89 134 ” 8,769 164 Khorassan
Rubber goods — — 5 ” 3,195 532 Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, Seistan, Yezd, and Kerman
Silk, raw 72 332 515 ” 4,830 1,630 Khorassan and Yezd
Skins
Untanned 50 633 921 ” 11,206 585⎫ Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, and Seistan
Other 1,748 2,074 1,532 ” 23,713 1,186⎬
Soap 101 88 187 ” 9,322 352⎭
Spices — 448 92 ” 531 40 Khorassan, Birjand, and Seistan
Spirits 187 227 469 ” 6,176 245⎫ ⎬Khorassan
Stones, precious and other — — — ” 2,782 73⎭
Sugar—
Loaf 107,032 118,422 132,090 ” 12,696,665 107,978⎬
Other 19,259 26,203 38,444 ” 4,330,320 37,694⎭
Tea 961 925 353 ” 110,949 7,937 Largely Indian tea. Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, and Seistan
Thread—
Cotton 222 356 177 ” 8,457 604⎫ Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, Seistan, Yezd, and Kerman
Imitation gold and silver 1,112 — — ” 7,326 1,325⎬
Other 449 3,565 610 ” 169 66⎭
Tissues—
Cotton 70,305 115,799 65,521 ” 1,682,447 604⎫ Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, Seistan, Yezd, and Kerman
Silk 1,498 3,978 997 ” 1,245 1,175⎬
Woollen 1,405 2,548 3,361 ” 17,383 4,175⎪
Other 476 2,600 — ” 2,009 296⎭
Tobacco and cigarettes 2,345 1,794 3,634 ” 54,113 3,120 Khorassan, Afghanistan, Birjand, Seistan, Yezd, and Kerman
Vehicles 82 410 653 Number 111 844 Khorassan
Vegetables and vegetable substances — — — Lbs. 28,048 1,134 Khorassan and Birjand
Watches 139 47 79 Number 83 146 Khorassan and Afghanistan
Wearing apparel 1,145 1,350 842 Lbs. 3,811 1,223 Khorassan, Birjand, and Seistan
Wines 98 127 297 ” 3,211 95 Khorassan
Wood, manufactured — 126 44 ” 35,516 99 Khorassan and Seistan
Miscellaneous 2,523 752 137 ” 293 56
Total £260,844 £341,447 £316,642 — — £405,028

APPENDIX VII

RETURN OF ARTICLES EXPORTED FROM KHORASSAN TO RUSSIA DURING THE PERIOD MARCH 21, 1903, TO MARCH 20, 1904, COMPARED WITH 1900-03

Articles. Value. 1903-04. Remarks.
1900-01. 1901-02. 1902-03. Quantity. Value.
£ £ £ £
Almonds and pistachio nuts 3,017 1,166 1,639 — — — Included in “Fruits, dried”; separate figures not obtainable
Animals—
Camels 540 — 94 Number 8 46
Cattle 1,719 7,913 13,702 ” 5,764 8,496
Donkeys — — 19 ” 14 18
Horses — — 136 ” 43 199
Sheep 429 2,008 1,905 ” 22,879 8,434
Unspecified 2 201 313 ” 8,947 178 Poultry, &c.
Animal products, crude — — — Lbs. 38,590 505
Butter and other edible fats — 3 — ” 2,919 114
Carpets 20,855 15,600 32,958 ” 66,125 6,233 For Constantinople, American, and European markets
Charcoal 15 — 134 ” 421,512 928 Exported chiefly from Sarakhs district
Copper-work — — 317 ” 1,846 149 Chiefly basins, ewers, and trays
Cotton, raw 162,318 74,330 121,906 ” 10,839,589 196,081 Some for European, greater part for Russian, markets
Drugs 270 212 245 ” 4,921 135
Dyes 2,783 1,918 1,999 ” 89,245 1,280 Chiefly henna and a dye made from the pistachio-tree and used for dyeing skins
Earthenware and crockery 146 61 35 ” 1,547 99
Fodder — — 23 ” 132,392 91
Fruits, dried and fresh 5,219 10,281 2,966 ” 10,244,286 54,716[47]
Glassware 16 1 40 — — —
Gold and silver work — — 6 Lbs. 2 30
Grain 696 765 2,378 ” 33,365 163
Gums 279 14 151 ” 13,462 181
Gut 233 627 195 — — —
Indigo 717 352 241 Lbs. 761 53 Entered as “Animal products, crude”
Iron, manufactured 39 11 580 ” 1,243 73 Entirely Indian
Mercery and hardware 365 1,823 656 ” 9,438 1,859
Minerals, not specified 273 418 57 ” 1,287 74
Oils 128 286 89 ” 1,950 24
Opium 36 6,681 2,975 ” 18,532 8,553
Precious stones 492 595 5,592 ” 1,638 4,597 Principally turquoises
Provisions, fresh and preserved 96 37 302 ” 15,457 1,245
Raisins 2,948 20,483 37,041 — — — Included in “Fruits, dried”; separate figures not obtainable
Rope, &c. 6 51 37 Lbs. 130 4
Shawls 12,763 16,579 12,833 ” 45,065 6,134 Chiefly from Khorassan, some from Kerman
Silk, raw 361 204 278 ” 72,326 5,074
Skins—
Untanned 29,006 26,466 18,951 ” 1,841,815 48,164
Other 2,270 6,070 3,448 ” 29,029 1,509
Spices 914 443 240 ” 32,050 684 Almost entirely Indian
Sugar—
Loaf — — 1,029 ” 114,862 1,302
Other 326 2,683 71 ” 41,757 293
Tea 25,197 34,062 10,255 ” 170,840 11,569 Entirely Indian tea
Thread—
Cotton 201 340 56 ” 345 21
Silk 211⎫ ⎬480⎨ ⎧425 ” 1,547 561
Wool 10⎭ ⎩ 59 ” 13,429 218
Timber 106 38 175 ” 460,025 320
Tissues—
Cotton 15,721 21,110 13,703 ” 142,578 12,615 Chiefly turbans. Coarse locally made cloth
Silk 3,540 10,129 11,255 ” 460,764 28,030 From Khorassan chiefly, but also from Yezd and Kerman
Woollen 291 1,874 2,853 ” 27,399 5,253
Other 39 199 — — — —
Tobacco and cigarettes 462 152 181 Lbs. 559 36
Vegetables and vegetable substances — — 1,929 ” 893,009 5,372
Wearing apparel 1,032 372 1,403 ” 11,025 1,167
Woodwork — — — ” 7,781 154
Wool 62,770 34,498 68,121 ” 5,477,771 104,166 Largely Afghan wool, vide “Imports from Afghanistan”
Miscellaneous 1,078 3,415 170 ” 1,378 52
Total £359,935 £304,951 £376,166 — — £527,252

[47] Chiefly raisins.

APPENDIX VIII

RETURN OF ARTICLES EXPORTED FROM AFGHANISTAN TO KHORASSAN AND SEISTAN DURING THE PERIOD MARCH 21, 1903, TO MARCH 20, 1904, COMPARED WITH 1900-03

Articles. Value. 1903-04. Remarks.
1900-01. 1901-02. 1902-03. Quantity. Value.
£ £ £ £
Almonds and pistachio nuts 404 3,297 1,479 — — — Included in “Fruits, dried”; separate figures not obtainable
Animal products, crude 22 68 25 — — —
Butter and other fats 2,070 14,100 6,486 Lbs. 38,318 1,231 Decrease of importation in 1903-1904, due to mortality among the sheep owing to drought
Camels — 188 351 — — —
Carpets 1,291 1,091 2,524 Lbs. 18,857 1,285
Cattle — — 357 — — —
Cotton, raw 18 388 358 Lbs. 57,779 1,061 Re-exported to Russia
Drugs 1,759 741 1,189 ” 78,072 1,742 Partly Indian
Fruits, fresh and dried 16 171 15 ” 69,999 607
Grain 594 889 671 ” 4,355 56
Gum 5 — 21 ” 131 7
Horses — 33 1,116 — — —
Indigo 77 161 231 Lbs. 6,747 720 This is entirely indigo come through Afghanistan from India
Iron, manufactured — — 17 ” 3,419 58
Leather work — — — ” 208 58
Mercery and hardware 229 819 391 ” 2,399 400
Oils 47 118 — — — —
Opium 682 865 197 Lbs. 104 46 Decrease due to heavy increase of duty under new tariff
Packing materials 164 630 1,015 — — — These are woollen sacks for packing wool, &c.
Provisions — 436 650 Lbs. 28,756 285
Raisins 1 440 201 — — — Included in “Fruits, dried”
Rice 5,791 5,737 2,426 Lbs. 74,302 731
Rope — 43 24 — — —
Sheep — 2,039 12,223 Number 8,388 2,048 Decrease due to mortality among the sheep
Skins—
Tanned 3,493 1,635 8,638 Lbs. 11,363 833 These are chiefly postins (sheep-skin coats)
Untanned 1,548 1,640 7,526 ” 324,617 8,235 Large part re-exported to Russia
Spices 24 1,347 305 ” 87,126 1,060 Come chiefly from India
Thread 62 113 702 ” 2,783 380
Tissues 1,062 1,703 774 ” 6,815 271
Tobacco 230 307 174 ” 1,762 22
Wearing apparel 781 1,184 1,120 ” 1,534 275
Wool 11,245 29,156 45,113 ” 3,240,692 90,366 Re-exported to Russia, and to United Kingdom and America via Russia
Miscellaneous 37 420 156 ” 80 3
Total £31,652 £69,759 £96,475 — — £111,780

APPENDIX IX

RETURN OF ARTICLES EXPORTED FROM KHORASSAN AND SEISTAN TO AFGHANISTAN DURING THE PERIOD MARCH 21, 1903, TO MARCH 20, 1904, COMPARED WITH 1900-03

Articles. Value. 1903-04. Remarks.
1900-01. 1901-02. 1902-03. Quantity. Value.
£ £ £ £
Animal products, crude — — — Lbs. 12,670 196
Camels — — 120 Number 7 43
Candles 50 32 139 Lbs. 4,713 154 Entirely Russian candles
Carpets — — 28 ” 12,428 989
Cattle — — — Number 8 15
Chemicals — — 67 Lbs. 2,425 52
Copper in bars — — 2 ” 1,950 27⎫ Comes from Russia and is made into trays, water vessels, &c., in Khorassan and exported to Afghanistan
”   work — — 125 ” 9,562 475⎭
Drugs 39 120 158 ” 12,883 228
Dyes 5 298 205 ” 3,003 27
Earthenware and crockery 71 27 197 ” 3,081 96 Comes from Russia
Fruits, fresh and dried 36 23 145 ” 24,649 192
Glass, mirrors, &c. — — 166 ” 2,340 40⎫ ⎬Comes entirely from Russia
Glassware 102 2 170 ” 11,213 364⎭
Gold and silver work — — 39 ” 5 34
Grain 1 — 2 ” 14,359 73
Hardware 248 515 1,324 ” 17,986 1,248 Lamps, boxes in wood and metal, needles, &c., buttons and beads; mostly from Russia
Horses — — 19 Number 34 115
Indigo 72 71 572 — — — Indian. Export ceased owing to heavy customs duty in Persia
Iron in sheets, &c. 260 152 38 Lbs. 28,900 229⎫ ⎬Comes entirely from Russia
” and steel, manufactured 108 128 101 ” 5,259 151⎭
Leather-work — — — ” 1,287 120 Both Russian and Indian
Oil— ”
Petroleum 31 27 428 ” 137,163 818 Entirely from Russia
Other — — 273 ” 3,553 87
Paper 10 106 102 ” 780 15 Chiefly Russian
Provisions — — 162 ” 1,346 8 Butter, flour, and salt
Sheep — 2 4 Number 1,067 195
Silk, raw 66 — 96 Lbs. 2,977 1,580
Skins— ”
Furs — — — ” 13 33
Tanned and untanned 100 180 54 ” 1,742 91
Spices 255 524 801 ” 20,753 602 Almost entirely from India
Sugar— ”
Loaf 3,747 — 4,925 ” 615,180 7,743⎫ ⎬Entirely Russian
Other 1,982 450 2,600 ” 357,494 4,751⎭
Tea 1,155 802 1,898 ” 1,112 88 ndian green tea
Thread— ”
Cotton — 144 266 ” 3,458 182
 Imitation gold and silver —  ⎫ ⎬ 601⎨ ⎧    9 ” 533 115
Silk 42⎭ ⎩2,547 ” 423 175
Tin and lead in ingots — — 51 ” 2,301 192 Russian
Tissues— ”
Cotton 9,588 12,713 24,550 ” 387,777 29,792 Chiefly Russian
Silk — 622 1,865 ” 9,065 4,635  ” Persian
Woollen 5,102 336 97 ” 17,108 2,843
Turquoises — — — ” 384 591
Vegetables — — — ” 4,589 117
Vehicles — — 24 Number 2 84 Two Russian carriages exported for Commander-in-Chief, Herat
Wearing apparel 2 162 94 Lbs. 2,460 221
Wood, manufactured — 4 63 ” 1,755 37
Miscellaneous 215 204 129 ” 468 40
Total 23,287 18,245 44,655 — — 59,903

APPENDIX X

RETURN OF ARTICLES EXPORTED FROM INDIA TO KHORASSAN VIA THE SEISTAN ROUTE DURING THE PERIOD MARCH 21, 1903, TO MARCH 20, 1904

Articles. Value. 1903-04.
Khorassan and Seistan. Khorassan only.
1900-01. 1901-02. 1902-03. Quantity. Value.
£ £ £ Lbs. £
Camels — — 246 — —
Candles — 115 19 — —
Drugs 9 150 45 — —
Dyes — 32 21 — —
Earthenware and crockery — 83 35 1,750 37
Fruits, dried 2 — 389 — —
Glassware — 1,508 34 — —
Indigo 1,825 8,226 3,575 47,097 5,531
Iron and brass in bars and sheets — 96 3 1,120 64[48]
Leather work — — — 3,250 409
Machinery — — 121 — —
Mercery, &c. — 2,487 840 3,350 2 9[49]
Provisions, preserved — 113 69 — —
Rice — — 102 — —
Skins 89 195 721 10,925 1,463[50]
Spices — 556 183 7,345 236
Sugar — 64 131 — —
Tea — 9,011 434 79,579 4,134[51]
Thread (cotton) and yarn — 2 101 6,500 818
Tissues— —
Cotton — 4,427 3,281 — —
Silk — 155 — — —
Woolen — 206 109 — —
Tobacco — 83 109 840 74[52]
Wearing apparel — 245 464 — —
Wines — — — 728 49
Miscellaneous — 148 71 227 26
Total £1,925 £27,902 £11,103 — £13,060

[48] Entirely brass sheets used for manufacturing tea-urns.

[49] Chiefly palm-leaf fans.

[50] Largely fox-skins, which are mostly re-exported to Russia.

[51] Of this, £517 worth was green tea and the rest black.

[52] Entirely snuff.

APPENDIX XI

RETURN OF ARTICLES EXPORTED FROM KHORASSAN TO INDIA VIA THE SEISTAN ROUTE DURING THE PERIOD MARCH 21, 1903, TO MARCH 20, 1904

Articles. Value. 1903-04.
Khorassan and Seistan. Khorassan only.
1900-01. 1901-02. 1902-03. Quantity. Value.
£ £ £ Lbs. £
Almonds and pistachio nuts 261 44 37 ” 87,750 1,039[53]
Butter (ghi) — 1,039 — ” — —
Carpets — 134 273 ” — —
Copper, brass, and nickel work (tea-urns) — — — ” [54] 10
Drugs 153 507 316 ” — —
Earthenware and crockery — — 32 ” 700 94
Fruits, dried — 62 8 ” 10,400 87[55]
Grain — — 179 ” — —
Horses 862 2,493 3,631 Number 192 1,792
Mules 338 162 — ” — —
Silk, raw — — — Lbs. 312 218
Skins, untanned — — 429 ” — —
Tissues— ”
Cotton 50 — 55 ” — —
Silk 1,255 2,046 7,336 ” 7,598 3,658
Woollen — 2 106 ” — —
Turquoises — — — ” 180 326
Miscellaneous — 179 32 ” — 32
Total £2,919 £6,668 £12,434 — £7,256

[53] Almonds only.

[54] Not stated.

[55] Plums.

APPENDIX XII

TRADE VALUE OF THE SEISTAN ROUTE COMPARED WITH COMPETING ROUTES

Year By the—
Quetta-Seistan Route. Bunder Abbas Route. Trebizond-Tabriz-Teheran Route. Baghdad-Kermanshah-Teheran Route.
Imports. Exports. Total. Imports. Exports. Total. Imports. Exports. Imports. Exports.
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
1900-01[56] 1,925 2,919 4,844 [57] [57] — [57] [57] [57] [57]
1901-02[56] 27,902 6,668 34,570 85,813 [57] — 18,060 — [57] [57]
1902-03[56] 11,103 12,434 23,537 108,319 [57] — — — [57] [57]
1903-04[58] 13,060 7,256 20,316 80,261 38,165 118,426 21,780 — 20,800 —

[56] For Khorassan and Seistan.

[57] Not recorded.

[58] For Khorassan only.

APPENDIX XIII

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND JAPAN
Signed at London, August 12, 1905
Preamble.

The Governments of Great Britain and Japan, being desirous of replacing the Agreement concluded between them on January 30, 1902, by fresh stipulations, have agreed upon the following Articles, which have for their object—

(a) The consolidation and maintenance of the general peace in the regions of Eastern Asia and of India;

(b) The preservation of the common interests of all Powers in China by ensuring the independence and integrity of the Chinese Empire and the principle of equal opportunities for the commerce and industry of all nations in China;

(c) The maintenance of the territorial rights of the High Contracting Parties in the regions of Eastern Asia and of India, and the defence of their special interests in the said regions:—

Article I.

It is agreed that whenever, in the opinion of either Great Britain or Japan, any of the rights and interests referred to in the preamble of this Agreement are in jeopardy, the two Governments will communicate with one another fully and frankly, and will consider in common the measures which should be taken to safeguard those menaced rights or interests.

Article II.

If by reason of unprovoked attack or aggressive action, wherever arising, on the part of any other Power or Powers either Contracting Party should be involved in war in defence of its territorial rights or special interests mentioned in the preamble of this Agreement, the other Contracting Party will at once come to the assistance of its ally, and will conduct the war in common, and make peace in mutual agreement with it.

Article III.

Japan possessing paramount political, military, and economic interests in Korea, Great Britain recognises the right of Japan to take such measures of guidance, control, and protection in Korea as she may deem proper and necessary to safeguard and advance those interests, provided always that such measures are not contrary to the principle of equal opportunities for the commerce and industry of all nations.

Article IV.

Great Britain having a special interest in all that concerns the security of the Indian frontier, Japan recognises her right to take such measures in the proximity of that frontier as she may find necessary for safeguarding her Indian possessions.

Article V.

The High Contracting Parties agree that neither of them will, without consulting the other, enter into separate arrangements with another Power to the prejudice of the objects described in the preamble of this Agreement.

Article VI.

As regards the present war between Japan and Russia, Great Britain will continue to maintain strict neutrality unless some other Power or Powers should join in hostilities against Japan, in which case Great Britain will come to the assistance of Japan, and will conduct the war in common, and make peace in mutual agreement with Japan.

Article VII.

The conditions under which armed assistance shall be afforded by either Power to the other in the circumstances mentioned in the present Agreement, and the means by which such assistance is to be made available, will be arranged by the Naval and Military authorities of the Contracting Parties, who will from time to time consult one another fully and freely upon all questions of mutual interest.

Article VIII.

The present Agreement shall, subject to the provisions of Article VI., come into effect immediately after the date of its signature, and remain in force for ten years from that date.

In case neither of the High Contracting Parties should have notified twelve months before the expiration of the said ten years the intention of terminating it, it shall remain binding until the expiration of one year from the day on which either of the High Contracting parties shall have denounced it. But if, when the date fixed for its expiration arrives, either ally is actually engaged in war, the alliance shall, ipso facto, continue until peace is concluded.

In faith whereof the Undersigned, duly authorised by their respective Governments, have signed this Agreement and have affixed thereto their Seals.

Done in duplicate at London, the 12th day of August, 1905.

LANSDOWNE.
(L.S.)   TADASU HAYASHI.

APPENDIX XIV

CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF AFGHAN HISTORY

1747.—Nadir Shah, a Turcoman bandit, conquers Persia with an army composed largely of Afghans. Sacks Delhi and is assassinated in camp on return from India.

Sirdar Ahmed Khan, an Afghan cavalry general of the Saddozai section of the Abdali Afghans, seizes the treasure near Kandahar and has himself crowned king of the Durani with the title of Ahmed Shah, Duri Duran. With Ahmed commences history of Afghan nation as an independent kingdom. He builds Kandahar shortly afterwards, calling it Ahmed Shahior Ahmed Shahr. (These events occur about 1747.) Ahmed Shah reigns twenty-six years. He replenishes his treasuries by frequent invasions of India. He is succeeded by his son Timour Shah.

1773.—Timour Shah’s succession to the throne. He removes the seat of government from Kandahar to Kabul. He reigns twenty years and dies 1793, leaving three sons:

(1) Zaman Shah, who reigns four years, living chiefly at Peshawar. He is deposed by his half-brother, Mahommed, and blinded as retaliation for having caused to be executed Wazir Surfaraz Khan Barakzai (called Paindah Khan).

(2) Mahommed, who is attacked and imprisoned by

(3) Shah Shujah, full brother of Zaman Shah. He ascends the throne of Kabul, but lives principally at Peshawar.

1800.—Proposed invasion of India by the emperors Paul and Napoleon.

1807.—Scheme of Indian invasion by the emperors Alexander and Napoleon.

1809.—News having been received that Emperor Napoleon and Tsar Alexander had agreed to invade India through Persia, Mr. Elphinstone is sent as an ambassador to Kabul, meets Shah Shujah at Peshawar, and concludes a treaty.

1809.—Fateh Khan, son of murdered Wazir Surfaraz Khan, releases Mahommed and places him on the throne. Flight of Shah Shujah from Peshawar to take refuge with Ranjit Singh at Lahore, the latter extracting from him the famous Koh-i-Nur diamond, but refusing to protect him.

1818.—Murder of Fateh Khan by order of Shah Mahommed and his son Kamran. Country again convulsed with anarchy. Mahommed and Kamran retire to Herat, the rest of the country being divided between the brothers of Fateh Khan, the murdered Wazir, amongst whom Dost Mahommed Khan got Kabul, Jelalabad, and Ghazni.

1826.—Accession of Dost Mahommed, Amir of Afghanistan.

1832.—Lieutenant A. Burnes’ journey to Kabul, Bokhara, Merv, and Meshed.

1833.—Unsuccessful Persian expedition against Herat.

1837.—Persia, instigated by Russia, marches against Herat.

1837.—Siege of Herat and defence by Eldred Pottinger, November 1837, to June 1838.

1837.—Mission of Sir Alexander Burnes to Kabul to make peace between Dost Mahommed and Ranjit Singh, September 1837.

1837.—Russian agent, Vitkievitch, at Kabul, December 1837.

1838.—Wood explores the Upper Oxus to Lake Siri-kol.

1838.—Rupture of relations with Dost Mahommed. Recall of Burnes.

1838.—Beginning of first Afghan War, November 1838.

1839.—Capture of Kandahar.

1839.—Capture of Kabul, flight of Dost Mahommed, and restoration of Shah Shujah (August).

1840.—Rising of Dost Mahommed (September).

1840.—Defeat and surrender of Dost Mahommed at Bamian (November).

1841.—Assassination of Sir A. Burnes at Kabul (November).

1841.—Murder of Sir W. Macnaghten at Kabul (December).

1842.—Siege of British forces in Kabul (December 1841, to January 1842).

1842.—Retreat and massacre of British army (January).

1842.—Advance of British relief column under General Pollock (April).

1842.—March of General Nott from Kandahar to Kabul (August to September).

1842.—General Pollock re-enters Kabul (September).

1842.—Evacuation of Afghanistan (October).

1842.—Dost Mahommed restored to throne.

1854.—Meeting between Ghulan Hydel, Envoy of Dost Mahommed and Sir John Laurence at fort Abbotabad to discuss question of alliance.

1855.—First treaty between Great Britain and Dost Mahommed (January).

1856.—Surrender of Herat to the Persians (October).

1857.—Meeting between Sir John Laurence and Dost Mahommed at Peshawar.

1857.—Second treaty between Great Britain and Dost Mahommed (January).

1857.—Grant of subsidy to Dost Mahommed of 12 lakhs.

1857.—Mission of Major Lumsden to Kandahar (March to April).

1857.—War between Great Britain and Persia upon behalf of Afghanistan (November 1856, to March 1857).

1857.—Appointment of British agent to Kabul. Removal to Kandahar.

1857.—Treaty of Paris between Great Britain and Persia (March).

1858.—Recall of Kandahar Mission: agent remains.

1858.—Russian Mission of Khanikoff to Herat.

1858.—Death of Ghulam Hyder, son of Dost Mahommed; and Shir Ali nominated successor to Dost Mahommed.

1863.—Death of Dost Mahommed (June). Accession of Shir Ali; return to Kabul with British Agent from Kandahar.

1863.—Requests recognition of Mahommed Ali; treaty of peace, and grant of 6000 rupees.

1863-1868.—Civil War in Afghanistan.

Consequent upon the nomination of Shir Ali, serious dissension occurred in the family of Dost Mahommed. Upon the succession of Shir Ali, rebellion broke out, and Azim, brother to Shir Ali by a different mother, fled into British territory. Afzal, the brother of Azim, serving as Governor of Balkh, also revolted. Shir Ali defeated Afzal, imprisoning him in August 1864. Abdur Rahman, the son of Afzal, was pursued by Shir Ali. Abdur Rahman was joined by Azim, the two marching on Kabul, released Afzal and attacked Kabul in 1866. Shir Ali fled to Kandahar, Afzal entering Kabul as Amir on May 21, 1866. Recognised by the Government of India, he died suddenly in 1867. He was succeeded by Azim, who was never recognised officially by the Government of India. Shir Ali then marched against Azim in 1869, defeating him. Azim died in flight to Teheran, the final triumph and the concluding act of the rebellion being the accession to the throne of Shir Ali Khan in 1869.

1865.—Mahommed Ali killed.

1869.—Flight of Abdur Rahman Khan to Samarkand.

1869.—Shir Ali endeavours to obtain recognition by British Government of his son Abdullah Jan as successor. Refused.

1869.—Umballa Conference between Lord Mayo and Shir Ali (March).

1869.—First overtures from Lord Clarendon to Prince Gortchakow about Afghanistan.

1872.—Gortchakow-Granville Agreement as to boundaries of Afghanistan (October).

1872.—Seistan Boundary Commission.

1873.—Evidences of estrangement of Shir Ali from Government of India.

1873.—Abdullah Jan proclaimed heir-apparent. Yakub Khan revolts. Flight to Herat.

1874.—Imprisonment at Kabul of Yakub Khan.

1876.—Cool reception of Mission from Lord Lytton to Kabul.

1876.—Quetta occupied.

1877.—Abortive Conference at Peshawar between Sir L. Pelly and the Prime Minister of Shir Ali, Nur Mahomet Shah (February).

1877.—Estrangement of Shir Ali completed.

1878.—Kauffman threatens invasion of Afghanistan and India (June).

1878.—Pamir column despatched under General Abramoff (June).

1878.—Arrival of Stolietoff mission at Kabul (July).

1878.—Refusal of Shir Ali to allow the Mission under Sir Neville B. Chamberlain, Commander of the Madras army, to enter Afghanistan. Major Cavagnari and party threatened with attack at Ali Musjid if progress through Khyber Pass maintained (September 20 and 21).

1878.—Advance continued, November 21.

1878.—Colonel Grodekoff’s ride from Samarkand to Herat (October to November).

1878.—Denunciation of alliance with Dost Mahommed by Lord Lytton (November 21).

1878.—Second Afghan War begun (November).

1878.—Flight of Shir Ali from Kabul and release of Yakub Khan.

1879.—Death of Shir Ali in February and accession of Yakub Khan (February).

1879.—Treaty of Gandamak with Yakub Khan (June 8).

1879.—Assassination of Sir L. Cavagnari at Kabul, Dr. Ambrose Kelly, Lieut. Hamilton, and Mr. Jenkins and others (September 3 and 4).

1879.—Third Afghan War begun (September 6). March of General Roberts on Kabul.

1879.—General Roberts arrives at Kabul (September 28), and occupies Dakka (September 22).

1879.—Execution of murderers of Sir L. Cavagnari (October 20-24).

1879.—Twenty-five thousand Afghans defeated by Generals Roberts and Gough (December 23).

1879.—Kabul deserted by Afghans; re-occupation by British (December 26).

1879.—Yakub Khan deported to India (December).

1880.—Recognition of Abdur Rahman Khan as Amir (July).

1880.—Disaster of Maiwand (July 27). Defeat of General Burrows by Ayub Khan.

1880.—March of Sir F. Roberts to the relief of Kandahar (leaving Kabul August 8, arriving Kandahar August 31).

1880.—Rejection of Ayub’s terms by Sir F. Roberts and defeat of Ayub at Mazra (or Battle of Kandahar on September 1).

1881.—Evacuation of Kandahar and entry of Abdur Rahman (September 30).

1882-1883.—Surveys of Lessar.

1882.—Moslim agent appointed to represent British Government at Kabul.

1882.—Quetta district handed over on a rent to the British.

1882.—Prince Lobanoff converses with Lord Granville re Prince Gortchakow’s circular of 1873.

1883.—Occupation by Russia of Tejend oasis (October).

1883.—Quetta district ceded to Great Britain.

1883.—Shignan and Roshan occupied by Abdur Rahman Khan.

1883.—Abdur Rahman passes a law concerning the status of women.

1883.—Subsidy of 12 lakhs, granted by Lord Ripon to Abdur Rahman, due.

1884.—Frontier negotiations between Great Britain and Russia. Sir Peter Lumsden proceeds with British Mission to Herat to demarcate Northern Boundary of Afghanistan.

1884.—Recommencement of Quetta Railway.

1884.—Sir P. Lumsden sent as British Boundary Commissioner (October 1884).

1884.—The Russians occupy Pul-i-Khatun (October).

1885.—The Russians occupy Zulfikar and Akrobat, and advance upon Pendjeh (February).

1885.—Fight between the Russians and Afghans at Tash-Kepri on the Kushk (March 30).

1885.—Rawal Pindi conference between Lord Dufferin and Abdur Rahman Khan. Amir received K.C.S.I. (April).

1885.—War scare in Great Britain (April).

1885.—Sir P. Lumsden recalled. Colonel West Ridgeway remains on the scene of activities of Mission.

1885.—British and Russian Boundary Commissioners meet again. First boundary pillar formally erected (November 12).

1886.—Bolan Railway constructed to Quetta.

1886.—Demarcation of Afghan boundary up to separation of Commission (September).

1886.—Return of British Commission through Kabul to India (October).

1887.—Occupation of Karki by Russia (May).

1887.—Negotiations at St. Petersburg continued and concluded (July).

1887.—Final settlement and demarcation of Afghan frontier (winter).

1887.—Escape of Ayub Khan from Persia; failure of rebellion in Afghanistan.

1887.—Surrender of Ayub Khan to General Maclean, Viceroy’s Agent at Meshed, and detention in India.

1888.—Quetta Railway continued to Kila Abdulla (January).

1888.—Revolt of Is-hak Khan against Abdur Rahman Khan (July to September).

1888.—Retreat of Is-hak Khan to Samarkand.

1889.—War scare on the Oxus boundary (February to March).

1891.—Abdur Rahman introduces the Oath of Allegiance on the Koran among his councillors.

1891.—Abdur Rahman appoints Habib Ullah to hold public Durbars.

1893.—Sir Mortimer Durand goes to Kabul to explain drift of negotiations between Great Britain and Russia in connection with Northern frontier and Pamir region.

1893.—Durand Agreement.

1893.—Increase of subsidy granted to Abdur Rahman by six lakhs, and permitted to import munitions of war as required.

1893.—Abdur Rahman recognises British protectorate over Chitral and agrees to respect Bajaor and Swat.

1893.—New Chaman occupied as railway terminus.

1894.—Abdur Rahman invited to England by Queen Victoria; unable to accept.

1895.—Abdur Rahman abolished slavery in Afghanistan.

1895.—Oath of Allegiance accepted from whole of the State of Afghanistan by Abdur Rahman.

1895.—Abdur Rahman adopts title Zia-ul-Millat-ud-Din.

1895.—Visit of Nasr Ullah Khan, second son of Abdur Rahman, to England.

1901.—Death of Abdur Rahman (October 1). Habib Ullah proclaimed (October 3).

1902-1903.—Re-erection of boundary pillars on Perso-Afghan border.

1903.—Construction Quetta-Nushki Railway begun.

1903-1904-1905.—McMahon Mission for delimitation of Seistan boundary.

1904.—Opening of the Orenburg-Tashkent Railway.

1904.—Visit of Sirdar Inayat Ullah to India.

1904-1905.—Mission of Sir Louis Dane to Kabul.

1905.—Opening of the Quetta-Nushki Railway (November).

1905.—Resignation of Lord Curzon of Kedleston. Appointment of Earl Minto as Viceroy of India. Kitchener-Curzon controversy.

1905-06.—Extension of railway to Dakka.

1906.—Shah rejects the award made by McMahon Mission in respect of the waters of the Helmund.

1906.—Rumours of autumn. Visit of Habib Ullah to India.

MAP OF
AFGHANISTAN
BY
Angus Hamilton
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
London: H. Heinemann.   Stanford’s Geogˡ Estabᵗ London