Whereas the British Government have 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, willing 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 being an essential part of this transaction, he 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.

By this Note the matter of the Afghan position on the Pamirs was referred to the Anglo-Russian Pamirs Commission of 1895-96. That tribunal settled the question by dispossessing the Amir in favour of the Tsar. In the interval which elapsed between November 1893 and the assembly of the Commission, a fresh skirmish took place at Yaims in 1894, when an Afghan post was wiped out by Cossacks.

The disposal of the difficulties between Russia and Afghanistan was preliminary to the real work of the Durand Mission. This task, the adjustment of the many grievances set in train by the forward movement, was based upon many important and substantial concessions, the existence of which caused high hopes of the ultimate success of the Mission to be entertained. The assurance of assistance in case of unprovoked aggression given in 1880, and repeated in 1885, was confirmed, the subsidy of twelve lakhs increased to eighteen lakhs, and the right to import munitions of war admitted. Further, this additional engagement, entered as Clause II. of the Durand Agreement, November 12, 1893, was contracted:

The Government of India will at no time exercise interference in the territories lying ... on the side of Afghanistan, and His Highness the Amir will at no time exercise interference in the territories lying ... on the side of India.

Two days after the conclusion of its labours, November 14, the Mission left Kabul, sharing upon its arrival in India in that prodigal distribution of honours which occasionally reveals but a faint relation between cause and effect. Included in these favours was Mr. Pyne, whose services undoubtedly had constituted him a beneficent factor in the course of the negotiations. This gentleman was knighted, a similar distinction falling to the chief of the Mission. Time, however, has disclosed the Durand Agreement itself to be merely pretentious and possessed of very indifferent qualities.

Apart from the developments of the frontier policy under Lord Roberts, the evacuation of the Ningrahar valley after the Afghan War of 1878-80 contributed very largely to the unsatisfactory situation in which we at this time were placed. Had this position, together with Jelalabad, been retained, we should have cut off the retreat of the Afridis, Orakzais, Mohmands, Swatis and others into Afghan territory. Under existing circumstances these tribes can make good their escape into Afghanistan, even receiving assistance from that country when hard pressed. At the period of the Durand Mission the Government of India laid claim to the entire region—Bulund Khel, Mohmandstan, Asmar and Yaghistan, the latter embracing Chitral, Bajaur, Swat, Buner, Dir, Chilas and Waziristan. The Amir put forward a demand for Chageh, the Asmar valley, which he previously had occupied, and objected to the British pretensions. In point of fact, the rights of the Government of India had been already established by conquest and by moral superiority, since this zone, the home of border ruffians, had always required the watchful initiative of a strong Government. The British position was, therefore, incontestable. Moreover, since we were prepared to increase the subsidy of the Amir as a salve for the extinction of his interest in the Chitral region, there was no need to recede from any point. In regard to matters diplomatic, occasion should have been taken to provide, by a special clause in the treaty, for some proportion of these additional lakhs being devoted by their recipient to the task of assisting our own military authorities to draw the fangs of the more turbulent frontier elements. This precaution was ignored nor was it deemed necessary to allot to the Mission the services of a survey officer. Ultimately, after long discussion, the negotiations concluded, when it was revealed that at needless sacrifice the Asmar valley, commanding the approach to the Pamir-Chitral region and south-eastern Afghanistan and of great importance to strategic considerations on the Indian frontier, had been surrendered to the Amir, the Birmal tract, separated from Waziristan, and an ethnic absurdity perpetrated where the Mohmands country had been divided by the watershed of the Kunar and Panj-kora rivers. Such a process of vivisection, intolerable to a tribe who, although involved in constant dissension among themselves, were a united people, was at once resented.

In a letter, addressed to the Viceroy of India before the Durand Mission had set out for Kabul, Abdur Rahman had warned the Government of the consequence of interfering with the border tribes. He wrote:

As to these frontier tribes known by the name of Yaghistan, if they were included in my dominions I should be able to make them fight against any enemy of England and myself, by the name of a religious war, under the flag of their co-religious Muslim ruler (myself). And these people being brave warriors and staunch Mahommedans would make a very strong force to fight against any power which might invade India or Afghanistan. I will gradually make them peaceful subjects and good friends of Great Britain. But if you should cut them out of my dominions they will neither be of any use to you nor to me; you will always be engaged in fighting or other trouble with them, and they will always go on plundering. As long as your Government is strong and in peace, you will be able to keep them quiet by a strong hand, but if at any time a foreign enemy appear on the borders of India, these frontier tribes will be your worst enemies. You must remember that they are like a weak enemy who can be held under the feet of a strong enemy, as long as he is strong; and the moment he ceases to be strong enough to hold him the weak one gets out of his hold and attacks him in return. In your cutting away from me these frontier tribes who are people of my nationality and my religion, you will injure my prestige in the eyes of my subjects, and will make me weak, and my weakness is injurious for your Government.

Early in 1894 the Marquess of Lansdowne had been succeeded by the Earl of Elgin, Lord Rosebery had become Prime Minister, and Abdur Rahman had been invited to England, the invitation being endorsed by Sir Henry Fowler. Regarding the Durand legacy as a bequest to be fulfilled and undeterred by the fact that frontier feeling was still highly excited over the Mission to Kabul, the Government of India proceeded to appoint various boundary commissions. One, destined for the Afghan-Waziristan border with orders to assemble on October 1, at Dera Ismail Khan, included Messrs. King, Anderson, Grant and Bruce with an escort of 3000 soldiers and six guns. Another, meeting on December 3, at Lundi Khana and intended for the Mohmand-Bajaur-Asmar boundary, comprised

Political Commissioners.Medical.Survey.
Mr. R. Udny.Surgeon-CaptainColonel Holdich, R.E.
Mr. C. Hastings.McNabb.Lieut. Coldstream, R.E.