“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).