“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.