Afghanistan

by A. Hamilton

With a view to the careful preparation of this volume the author, after returning to London from the war in Manchuria, visited Central Asia, his travels terminating abruptly in an attack of small-pox contracted from the natives, while he was wandering in the region of the Pamirs. Descending viâ Gilgit to India from the Taghdumbash, twelve months have been spent in the labour of writing, in the examination of a number of works, and in reference to those authorities who are so justly distinguished for their knowledge of the heart of Mid-Asia. In this direction it is perhaps of interest to point out that in order to establish a standard of accuracy, certain chapters have been submitted in page proof to the criticism of this little group of Central Asian experts, and their corrections embodied in its final form. The author very warmly appreciates the help which has in this way been given him, and to Colonel de la Poer Beresford and Captain Charles Bancroft in connection with chaps. [i.], [ii.], [iii.]; to Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich, K.C.I.E., K.C.M.G., C.B., in [chap. iv.]; to Colonel C. E. Yate, C.S.I., C.M.G., in chaps. [v.] and [vi.]; to Colonel Sir Henry McMahon, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., in [chap. ix.]; to Dr. A. J. Gray, Mrs. Kate Daly, and Major Cleveland, I.M.S., in chaps. [xiv.] and [xv.] he is very much indebted, as the indulgent manner in which his inquiries have been received has materially assisted the conclusion of his task.

In other quarters similar help has been given, and the author desires to express his deep obligation to the Secretary of State for India, Mr. Morley, to Mr. John E. Ellis, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India, to Sir William Lee-Warner, and to Mr. Thomas, of the Political Department, India Office, for the considerate way in which services have been rendered him. The very pleasant hospitality bestowed upon the author by Mr. George Macartney, C.S.I., the representative of the Government of India in Kashgar, Chinese Turkestan; by Mr. L. G. Fraser, the editor of The Times of India; by Mr. C. F. Meyer, Standard Oil Company’s Agent in Bombay; by Major Cleveland, in Poona; and by Mr. Ivor Heron-Maxwell, late of Baku in that centre, has provided him with many haunting memories which, in a later volume, will be more suitably described. To Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, and to Mr. J. Bryant Sowerby, Secretary of the Royal Botanic Society, the author is indebted for assistance in compiling the tables of species which illustrate [chap. xii.]; while to the Librarian of the India Office, and to the Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society, he would express his grateful thanks.

As correspondent to The Pall Mall Gazette, and to The Times of India from Central Asia, it is the pleasant duty of the author to acknowledge the permission of Sir Douglas Straight and Mr. L. G. Fraser to make use of certain articles which, although entirely altered and greatly amplified since their original appearance, were first presented in the respective columns of these organs. These extracts, a few brief paragraphs on various pages, are confined solely to the first six chapters of the book. Acknowledgments are also due to the proprietors of that esteemed Indian journal The Pioneer, whose London staff permitted the files of their well-known paper to be inspected; to the proprietors of The Daily Graphic for permission to reproduce the block of the Amir’s proclamation, and accompanying translation, appearing on pages [370], [371]; to Messrs. Macmillan for the right to reproduce their copper engraving of Dr. A. J. Gray’s painting of the Amir Abdur Rahman; to Baron Herbert de Reuter, Managing Director of Reuter’s Telegram Company, for courteous assistance; to Mr. J. D. Holmes, an Indian photographer of renown, whose unique photographs of the Khyber Pass illustrate chaps. [xvi.] and [xvii.]; to Lieutenant Stewart, whose photographs appear in [chap. ix.]; to Lieutenant Olufsen for the right to reproduce certain interesting photographs from that informative work Through the Unknown Pamirs; to Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich for authority to base upon his original sketches enlarged drawings of Herat and Kandahar, by Mr. Percy Home; to Major Cleveland, I.M.S., to whose great credit very many of the illustrations in this volume must be placed; to Major Molesworth Sykes, H.B.M. Consul at Meshed, for photographs appearing in [chap. vii.]; to Professor Victor Marsden, of Moscow University, for general courtesies; to Captain Charles Bancroft for assistance in translating extracts from papers placed at the author’s disposal by his Excellency Prince Khilkoff, Russian Minister of Railways; to that well-known military novelist, Mr. Horace Wyndham, who has been good enough to assist the author in the revision of his proofs; and to Mr. Thomas Bumpus, of Messrs. J. and E. Bumpus, Limited.

The final, but by no means the least gratifying, duty now remains to be fulfilled. It is concerned with the dedication of this volume which, by special permission, is inscribed:

TO HIM
WHO,
BY THE SPLENDOUR OF HIS GIFTS
AND
THE WISDOM OF HIS RULE,
HAS LEFT
AN INDELIBLE AND MEMORABLE
IMPRESSION
UPON INDIA:
LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON,
G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., P.C.
ETC. ETC. ETC.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

The works consulted in the preparation of this volume, including references to the Encyclopædia Britannica, embrace most of the well-known writers on Asiatic Russia, Persia, Afghanistan, and the Indian Frontier. Among those of less recent date are the books of Bellew, Connelly, Elphinstone, Ferrier, Lansdell, MacGregor, Marvin, Pottinger, Rawlinson, Vambéry, Wood and Yule.

Contemporary authorities, to which the author is more especially indebted, are as follows:

Bruce, R. I.	The Forward Policy and its Results.
Chirol, Valentine	The Middle Eastern Question.
Curzon, Lord	Russia in Central Asia.
”     ”	Persia and the Persian Question.
”     ”	The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus.
Daly, Mrs. Kate	Eight Years among the Afghans.
Gray, Dr. A. J.	My Residence at the Court of the Amir.
Holdich, Colonel Sir T. H.	The Indian Borderland.
Keane, A. H.	Asia.
Lansdell, H.	Russia in Central Asia.
Olufsen, O.	Through the Unknown Pamirs.
Roberts, Field Marshal Lord	Forty-one Years in India.
Ronaldshay, Earl of	Sport and Politics under an Eastern Sky.
”     ”   ”	On the Outskirts of Empire in Asia.
Shoemaker, M. M.	The Heart of the Orient.
Skrine, F. H., and Ross, E. D.	The Heart of Asia.
Sultan Mahomed Khan	Laws and Constitution of Afghanistan.
”     ”     ”	The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan.
Thorburn, S. S.	The Punjab in Peace and War.
Yate, A. C.	England and Russia Face to Face.
Yate, C. E.	Kurasan and Seistan.
”   ”	Northern Afghanistan.

Together with scientific papers, lectures and articles by: