THE AFGHAN ALLIANCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 130, 7 May 1885, Page 3

THE AFGHAN ALLIANCE.

The negotiations with which the Czar desires to proceed must almost necessarily appear to the Afghans as negotiations for the transfer of Afghan territory and Afghan rights iulo Russian hands. Can England, m her present relations towards Atghanistan, allow these people to say, '• Yon have lured us on to resist the Russians, and now you are bargaining for the surrender of our territory ?" Why does England intervene m this matter at all? It is for her own interest, not for that of the Afghan*. It is held to be sbnnd policy to take such a course as .will make and keep the Afghans our friends. For that purpose we appointed the Ameer, we render him support, we give him guarantees for the maintenance of his just rights, we encourage him to resist encroachment. * Not many yoars ago we were fighting with the Afghans. Now we count them as our friends. * But we have no right to expect to retain them as friends for our own interest and m neglect of theirs. Under Shore Ali they leaned towards Russia and against us because they had no assurance of our defence against dreaded Russian attacks. They still fear Rus*ia, and their friendship for us revives with the hope that now we shall really go to their aid. If ; t is convenient for ns to have a buffer between India and Russia, it is desirable for the buffer to have some assurance that the service it renders shall have its Toward In the absence of that , it would be better to yield at once and peaceably to the . stronger power. The great danger of the situation lies m the fact that the relations of England to Afghanistan may force upon the British Government a policy which would leave Russia no other course than to make war or recede. War has its risks, even for Russia ; but to recede, after rolling like a wave a ross the steppes, — it is . hoping against hope to look for that. — " Sydney Morning SeraJd.