Posting dispatches – Afghanistan

“No Afghan ruler will henceforth, unless he is prepared for an immediate rupture, either admit a Russian envoy into his capital, or repel an English Mission.”  The brave words of the Saturday Review, 1879.   

The bold statement was reprinted in the The Graphic, a magazine from London which that week, June 7, 1879, printed its first article referring to the ‘late Afghan War’.  The two pieces that follow, the second on troopship bath-times,  are as produced in the original edition of The Graphic.

THE LATE AFGHAN WAR

We trust that we may safely speak of the Afghan War in the past tense and that Yakoob Khan has sufficient influence over the majority of his countrymen to receive their support in the stipulations into which he has entered with our Government.  “The terms of the Afghan War,” observes the Saturday Review, “are equitable, moderate and satisfactory.  The predatory tribes are still likely to be troublesome, but they will be more easily controlled since the Indian Government has aquired the right of dealing with them independently and directly.  The covenant by which the Ameer binds himself to accept English guidance in his foreign policy, though it may not be uniformly observed, will be useful in preventing diplomatic complications.  No Afghan ruler will henceforth, unless he is prepared for an immediate rupture, either admit a Russian envoy into his capital, or repel an English Mission.”

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2018