Meanwhile, Afghanistan is acknowledged to be an independent Government within certain limitations. No Power has any right to interfere in its administration, although it is obvious that certain contingencies might alter its position in this respect. In the meantime, the Government of Afghanistan owes no national debt nor any war indemnity. The Amir is not hampered by any capitulations with Foreign Governments; he has no foreign ambassadors in his capital—although this is more a grievance than a pleasure to him, since he is anxious to vaunt his independence before the Courts of Europe.
The relations between Great Britain and Afghanistan as they stand to-day are fixed by treaties. The British Government acknowledges the independence of Afghanistan; it accepts responsibility for its safety and integrity against unprovoked aggressions, so long as the Amir does not act against the advice of the British Government in matters affecting his relations with other countries. Great Britain pays the Amir eighteen lakhs of rupees as an annual subsidy by virtue of Sir Mortimer Durand’s treaty with the Amir Abdur Rahman, dated 1893 and confirmed by Sir Louis Dane with the Amir Habib Ullah, 1904-1905; in addition to which she permits Afghanistan to import without restriction supplies of war materials and to maintain a political agent at the Court of the Viceroy of India.
In return for this understanding with the Imperial Government, the Amir is bound by his word and treaties to be the friend and ally of Great Britain; he pledges himself not to communicate with any Foreign Power without consulting with the Indian Government, and to accept at Kabul a British Agent, who must always be a Mahommedan subject and provided solely with a native staff.
The British agent at Kabul holds an absolutely thankless position. He is shunned of necessity by Europeans in order to avoid giving rise to political suspicions, and he may see the Amir only in the public Durbars or by special appointment. To all intents and purposes he is a prisoner; since, although received in Durbar, he does not visit any one and seldom ventures into the street. If a European were seen speaking to the British Agent, or to any one attached to his staff, he would certainly be packed off at once to the frontier. No Afghan is allowed to enter the British Agency and no Englishman has visited the British Agent, since Sir Salter Pyne left Kabul. Even to be found near the building causes suspicion, as several Afghans have discovered. Moreover, since in many cases punishment has not ended merely with imprisonment, it has become an unwritten law to avoid the British agent and his entourage at any cost.
The British political agents at Kabul are appointed by the Indian Foreign Office, who forward to the Amir for his approval the names of a few Mahommedan officials. One of these candidates is selected, the term of office being from three to five years. Upon returning to India he is usually rewarded with the title of Nawab. The Agency staff consists of two secretaries, one hospital assistant, and about two or three dozen private servants and bodyguard, all of which must be natives of India. The British agent attends the public audiences of the Amir; but, if he has any letters or communications from the British Government to convey to the Amir, he must ask for an appointment to deliver them.
If there are any legal disputes or claims between members of the staff of the British agent, both plaintiff and defendant are referred by him to the Courts of Justice in India. If the British agent or any member of his staff has a dispute with the Afghan subjects of the Amir, such cases are usually decided in the Courts of Kabul, under the law of that country. Complications of a very serious political character are invariably referred to the Governments of India and Afghanistan for arrangement between themselves.
The British agent puts his diary and also the private letters of the whole of his staff into one package, which he hands to the Amir’s Postmaster-General at Kabul, taking a receipt for their delivery under seal; from the Amir’s post-office they are sent down to Peshawar, where the Amir’s postmaster is given a discharge for their surrender to the political agent at Peshawar. In the same manner the packages of letters, which are delivered by the British political agent at Peshawar to the Amir’s postmaster at that place, are forwarded to the British agent at Kabul by the Amir’s Postmaster-General, who also takes a voucher for their safe and proper condition. The services and duties of the Amir’s political agent with the Viceroy of India, who, together with his staff, is a Mahommedan subject of the Amir, are nearly the same as those of the British agent at Kabul, except that the term and time of his office is not limited and depends entirely on the pleasure of the Amir. Besides the political agent, the Amir has various commercial agents in India as well as in England, the most important of these having been Sir Acquin Martin, Mr. T. B. Guthrie and Mr. E. T. Pack. Each of these industrious and excellent servants of the Amir has suffered the loss of large sums of money through a very pronounced defect in the Amirs of Afghanistan, which causes them to forget their obligations so long as there is a frontier lying between the Government of Kabul and those with whom its debts have been contracted. Representations remain unanswered and, apparently, no authority exists which can make the Amir of Afghanistan redeem his liabilities, although an obvious course awaits if the Government of India would assent to the attachment of the subsidy.
MAJOR CLEVELAND’S RESIDENCE IN KABUL