RUSSIAN DOINGS AT CABUL..

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1910, 8 April 1880, Page 4

RUSSIAN DOINGS AT CABUL..

A Blue Book containing correspondence and telegrams relative to the affairs of Afghanistan, dating from July 2nd, 1879, to December 3let, 1870, has been issued to Parliament. A despatch from Simla, September 15th, supplies details of the catastrophe at Cabul on the 3rd of that month, 'when the British Embassy was attacked; it also contains a statement of the considerations which guided the Government of India in the adoption of immediate measures for inflicting prompt retribution on the perpetrators of the outrage. First in importance, however, is the copy of a letter received by the Viceroy from Sir Frederick Roberts, reporting the jubstaace of a conversation between the latter and the ox-Amacr Yakoob Ehan regarding the political events and transactions which preceded the negotiations between the Russian authorities at Tashkond and the late Ameer Shore Ali Ehan, and lad to the Ameer’s eventual rupture with the British Government. General Roberts mentions that, after some conversation upon matters of no special importance, the Ameer introduced his father’s name (Shere Ali.) Yakoob Eban spoke “ readily and freely of all that had passed,” and needed no question or suggestion from Sir Robert “ to declare his conviction regarding the cause of his father’s unfriendly attitude towards us (England) during the past few years.” The Ameer’a statement is as follows :

“ In 1869 my father was fully prepared to throw in his lot with you. He had suffered many reverses before making himself secure on the throne of Afghanistan ; and he had come to the conclusion that his best chance of holding what he had won lay iu an alliance with the British Government. He did not receive from Lord Mayo as large a supply of arms and ammunition as he had hoped, but, nevertheless, he returned to Cabul fairly satisfied, aud so he remained until the visit of Nur Mahomed Shah to India in 1873. This visit brought matters to a head. The diaries received from Nur Mahomed Shah during his stay in India, and the report which he brought hick on bis return, convinced my father that he could no longer hope to obtain from the British Government all the aid that he wanted, and from that time he began to turn his attention to the thoughts of a Russian alliance. You know how this ended. When my father received from the Government of India the letter informing him that a British Mission was about to proceed to Cabul, he read it out in Durbar. The members of the Russian Embassy were present. After the reading was finished, Colonel Stolietoff rose, saluted the Amoor, and asked permission to leave Cabul. If permitted he would, he said, travel without delay to Tashkend, and report the state of affairs to General Eaufftnan, who would inform the Czar, and thus bring pressure to bear on England. He promised to return in six weeks or two months, and urged the Ameer to do everything in his power meanwhile to prevent the British mission from reaching Cabul. Colonel Stolietoff never returned to Cabul. He lost no time in reaching Tashkend, where he remained for a few weeks, and then he started for Russia. The Afghan official, Mirza Mahonuned Hasson Ehan, generally known as the “ Dabir ul-Mulk,” who had travelled with Ooionol Stolietoff from the Oxus to Cabul, accompanied him on his return journey to Tashkend. Hero the Mirza was detained under pretence that orders would ahortly be received from the Emperor, until the news of my father’s flight from Cabul reached General Eauffman. He was then permitted to leave. Two aides-de-camp were sent with him—one an European, the other a native of Bokhara. My father was strongly urged by General Eauffman not to leave Cabul. At the same time the members of the Embassy were ordered to return to Tashkend, the doctor being permitted to remain with my father if hia services wore required. Throughout the Russian Embassy was treated with great honor, and at •all stations between Mazar-i-Shariff and Cabul orders were given to the troops to turn out, and for a salute to be fired on their arrival and departure.