GANDAMAK BRIDGE, WHERE THE FAMOUS TREATY WAS SIGNED
Kandahar was occupied by Sir Donald Stewart, January 8, 1879; and, while a second force moved into position against the capital, a third under Sir Frederick Roberts marched against Paiwar Kotal. Shir Ali, flying before these operations, died at Mazar-i-Sharif in February 1879, the first chapter of the second war closing with the installation of his son Yakub Khan on the Kabul throne and the despatch of the Cavagnari mission to Kabul. The treaty of Gandamak, May 26, 1879, had barely put the seal upon certain rights, which might have led ultimately to the definite establishment of British authority in Afghanistan, when, in the following September, the sudden massacre of the entire mission occurred. The second phase of the Afghan War of 1878-1880 opened with the operations of Sir Frederick Roberts. Defeating the Afghans at Charasia, he entered Kabul in October causing the overthrow of Yakub Khan and paving the way for the eventual recognition of the late Amir Abdur Rahman as Amir of Kabul. Throughout this occupation of Kabul the temper of the surrounding tribes became slowly inflamed until, in December 1879, a rebellion against the British was proclaimed. The tribes rising, the forces in Kabul were placed in jeopardy by the interruption of communications with India. Action by Sir Donald Stewart, who had come up with forces from Kandahar, stemmed the torrent, the situation growing more complex when Abdur Rahman, who had retired across the Oxus on his defeat by Shir Ali in the war for succession, 1863-1868, reappeared in March of 1880 to establish himself in north-western Afghanistan. Both the Government of India and the bulk of the population welcomed his return, and withdrawing the territories of the Kandahar province from his rule he was recognised as Amir of Afghanistan with certain reservations in respect of foreign policy and dealings with Russia. Unfortunately the disasters which hitherto had followed British intervention in Afghanistan were to continue; in July 1880, but a few months after the proclamation of Abdur Rahman as the new Amir, the news of the defeat at Maiwand of General Burrows was received. Ayub Khan, Khan of Herat and youngest son of Shir Ali, marching upon Kandahar and defeating the British force sent to check his advance, had succeeded in investing the city. Sir Frederick Roberts was now once more to come upon the scene. Taking 10,000 men from Sir Donald Stewart’s garrison at Kabul he set out to the relief of Kandahar, accomplishing by a series of forced efforts an extraordinarily rapid march of 313 miles and, on September 1, 1880, routing Ayub Khan’s army. A little later, in 1881, British troops once again retired to India from Afghanistan; but a sudden attack by Ayub Khan’s adherents in July, 1881, secured the re-capture of Kandahar, Ayub Khan remaining there until, on September 22, he was totally vanquished by Abdur Rahman, losing all his possessions and retreating to Persia, from where subsequently he surrendered to the Government of India.
PLAN OF HERAT
A STREET SHRINE.
During this long pre-occupation with Afghan affairs Russia had made considerable improvement in her own position in Central Asia, where but little more than the final touches remained to be given. These appeared with the seizure of Merv in 1884 and the completion of the Central Asian railway between Krasnovodsk and Samarkand 1800-1888. The slow, yet faltering, steps with which Russia had maintained her advance towards Afghanistan, in contradiction of all treaties, in abuse of all frontiers and in contempt of our own inaction, at last forced home upon the British Government the fruits of its own miscalculations. In 1884 along the Afghan north-western frontier as also in 1896 on the Pamirs, Boundary Commissions were assembled to meet the exigencies of the situation. The former of these took the field under the leadership of Sir Peter Lumsden, with whom were associated Colonel Sir West Ridgeway and numerous officers attached for political, survey, military, geological and medical duties, including Major E. L. Durand, Major C. E. Yate, Major T. H. Holdich, Captain St. George Gore, Captain Peacocke, Captain the Honourable M. C. Talbot, Captain Maitland, and Lieutenant A. C. Yate. The Pamirs Mission was under the presidency of Major-General M. G. Gerard, with whom were Colonel T. H. Holdich, Lieut.-Colonel R. A. Wahab, Captain E. F. H. McSwiney, and Surgeon-Captain A. W. Alcock. Russia was represented by Major-General Povalo Shveikovski, Colonel Galkin, Captain Krutorogin, Lieutenant Orakolow, Monsieur Panafidine, and Doctor Welman.[12]