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The subject of our policy on the North-West frontier of India is one ofgreat importance, as affecting the general welfare of our EasternEmpire, and is specially interesting at the present time, when militaryoperations on a considerable scale are being conducted against acombination of the independent tribes along the frontier.
It must be understood that the present condition of affairs is no meresudden outbreak on the part of our turbulent neighbours. Its causes liefar deeper, and are the consequences of events in bygone years.
In the following pages I have attempted to give a short historicalsummary of its varying phases, in the hope that I may thus assist thepublic in some degree to understand its general bearings, and to form acorrect opinion of the policy which should be pursued in the future.
General.
Proposed Invasion of India by Napoleon I.—Mission of Burnes to Cabul
—Its Failure—Hostility of Russia and Persia—First Afghan War, 1839-41
—Its Vicissitudes and Collapse.
Conquest of Khiva, Bokhara, and Kokand by Russia—British Conquest ofScinde and the Punjaub—Our Policy with the Frontier Tribes—Treaty of1857 with Dost Mahomed—Shere Ali succeeds as Ameer, 1868—War of 1878—Abdul Rahman becomes Ameer—Withdrawal of British Army from Afghanistan,1881.
Further Advance of Russia—Merv Occupied—Sir West Ridgeway's Frontier
Commission of 1885—The Durand Agreement with Abdul Rahman—The Chitral
Expedition of 1895—Its Results—Sudden Outbreak of Frontier Tribes, 1897.
[Illustration: Afghanistan and North-West Frontier of INDIA.]
Proposed Invasion of India by Napoleon I.—Mission of Burnes to Cabul
—Its Failure—Hostility of Russia and Persia—First Afghan War, 1839-41
—Its Vicissitudes and Collapse.
In considering the important and somewhat intricate subject of policyon the North-Western frontier of our Indian Empire it will be desirable,in the first place, to give a concise history of the events which haveguided our action, and which for many years past have exercised apredominating influence in that part of our Eastern dominion.
Speaking generally, it may, I think, be said that the main features ofour policy on the North-Western frontier have been determined by thegradual advance of Russia southwards, and partly also by the turbulentcharacter of the people of Afghanistan, and of the independent tribeswho