The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-17 00:00:00

CAMPAIGN IN APFGHANISTAN.
KYBER PASS.
• TO THE EDITOR OF TH E S U.N:
Sia,—l have some knowledge ..)f the present
Juranee kingdom, by which term I mean the coun-
trie s of Caubul, the Damann, the P erajat, and the
territories eastward of the Helmund, aid if my know-
ledge will serve to explain some of ti ie movements of
the intended campaigns in Affghanis. ;tan, I shall he
happy to occupy a short space in you r columns.
The last Overland Mail has brov .ght intelligence
that Genera) Pollock did not inter id to force the
Kyber Pass (some of your Cont emporaries had
gratuitously added) until he has sufficient force to
ensure success. Those who know t the Douranee
kingdom, and the countries borderinl; upon the Indus,
are loping that the forcing of the Pass will never
again be attempted, until the count ries both in flank
and rear of the Passes shall be in the ,occupation of the
British. If there be—as we think t here be—a route
by which both the Bolan and Ky her Passes may
be avoided, it is worse than need less to sacrifice
military resources and human lifo for the gain
of a few days in time. The co-opera Lion of the Sikhs
of the Punjab clears away many difficulties; formerly,
when Lord Auckland proposed to the 11Iaha Rajah
L'unjeet Sing that the British army, destined to place
Rah Soojah upon the throne, should pass through his
territories, the proposition was met l.)y a cold assent,
and as this coldness made it more th an probable that
we should convert a duke-warm frieiad into an open
foe, another, but prolonged, route was chosen ; but
now that the Sikh routes and resoi trees are at our
disposition, a different and more spec-% ly plan of opera-
tion must be adopted. 'We have at this time a large
force on the left bank of the Indus, and for our friend
General Avitable, a noble-hearted l ilrenchman of the
IrAperial army, who commands in .Peshawur and the
siirrounding districts, and as he has hitherto assisted
us, he will now no doubt afford tis all the aid we
need ; if this be so, General Pollock need not hazard
a single company in the Kyber Pass. There are
three .routes by which the Kyber Pass may be
avoided; one by the road which runs in a north-
west direction from Peshawur to Mucknee, crossing
the Caubul raver at about 30 miles from Peshawur, and
keeping along /he valley of the stream until you come
at a point opposite the old fort, where the stream must
be again crossed, and the end of the pass turned at
Duka Khord and the Huzarnow. It is true, that for
any route other than the Kyber, it will be necessary
to bring boats for the transportation of the heavy bag-
gage and artillery from Attoch, a distance of eighty
miles ; and that by the Mucknoe route, there is some
strong ground between the Kaffir fort and Bussoul,
and that at this point there will be some hard fight-
ing, and also that the movement` cannot be effected
in less time than one month.
.Nut what are these
obstacles compared to the possibility of defeat ? The
other routes, from the reports of inte2ligent Sikh offi-
cers at Peshawur, are one by the Tatarce Pass, and the
other by crossing the river at Caubul, :20 miles above
Peshawar, and using the valley of the Lundye to
HuShnuggur, and then by the Cheroppa pass to Lul-
poora ; but this country is inhabited by the Euro-
fyzels, under the rule ofthe Rajah of Swat; and as they *
have never been subdued by the Sikhs, it is doubtful
if they will tolerate any armed force in their coumtry,
-without at least attempting resistance. The Gilzees,
Oolges, Cankers, and 'Kyberees, are like our ancient
Highlanders, impatient of controle. The Kyberees
have several times defeated the Sikhs, not that they
are powerful or goody soldiers, but the country is the
strongest in the world. The route from- India is
across the Indus at Attock, and from thence by a,
very good road to Peshawur, a city that formerly be-
longed to the Douranees, but which was wrested from
them by the late Maha Rajah, and whose possession
in it was confirmed, together with some other con-
quests on the right bank of the Indus, by Lord
Auckland,* in 1838-39. From the city there is a
good road over the plain, twelve miles to Jamrood ;
two miles further the Kyber Pass begins. About
sixteen miles up, the pass is an old fort called Ali-
Mushed, arid at Shopeca is the remains.'of a stone wall,
but neither the Kyberees nor their ancient masters
have erected any fortification that could resist an
European force ; the natural difficulties are the
strongest barriers. Huge piles of almost perpendi-
cular rocks, '2,000 feet high, rise upon each side of
the pass ; for several miles the road itself is but the bed
of a stream, which is so narrowed in some places that a
'single cannon only can pass; with large masses of
broken cliff scattered over the widest parts; andi
last, but not least, the Kyberees, armed with the jazils,
a native rifle, fixed upon a rest, and which can carry
nearly 800 yards, concealed in the crevices of the pre-
cipitous hill-side. The British troops, hacked by
artillery, can force this pass, if defended by the united
tribes of Affghanistan ; but is it wise to risk life and
stores, when another road, comparatively safe, lies
open? The late failure of Brigadier Wild arose
from his not having sufficient light artillery. Those
who have followed the operations of the French
against the Guerilla bands in the Spanish peninsula.
have seen that the French were never successful but
when their corps were supported by light mountain
guns ; not that the Kyberees can he compared to the
„Spanish Guerillas, as they have no Patriotic feeling to,
stimulate them to combat,—plunder alone urges them,
to fight, and they are equally indifferent if their mita-.
gonist be Persian, Caubulle, Sikh, or European, so,
that the plunder be sufficient to reward their foray..
If, as I have before written, when we have occupied
the flank and rear of the pass, we conquer the ban-
ditti who inhabit it, the Indian Government must not
only build forts at the further and nether end of the
pass, but they must erect field works on the crests of
the hills, to command the centre ,of the pass. The
necessity of erecting forts in all the passes was
pointed out to the Anglo-Indian Government, but it
was urged that our presence in the country would
he but of short duration, and that having placed
Shah Soojah upon the throne, our mission would be.
accomplished ; and that the Indian Government were
_ _

not justified in incurring the expense of such exten
sive strong holds. This was a weak argument, for if
the campaign of 1839 were undertaken to defeat the

designs of-Russia, or to paralyse her supposed in-
fluence, we should at once and for ever have taken

away from her and from every power, both European
and Asiatic, the means of shutting up the country,
which in this land of mountain 3, those who possess the

passes can always accomplish. Great Britain has paid
pretty smartly for this policy. Notwithstanding the va-
pouring of those semi-informed writers who would have
Great Britain inflict chastisement upon the Affghans
for their treachery, and then abandon the country,
those who appreciate our position in Central Asia, and
study coming events, know that Great Britain should
FOR EVER hold the passes of Affghanistan and of the
Ilimalayahs : these in our hands, we may laugh at
the dreams of Russian statesmen, and at the armies

of the Autocrat, or the wild tribes of Khorasan, ex-

cited by the intrigues or gold of any Power in the
world, should they menace our Indian Empire. We
may, holding the passes,.allow these armies, or these
. .

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hordes to perish either by starvation or by disunion,
and calmly defy all their attempts at onward march.
The lesson of the past will not be lost upon us. We
have suffered temporary disaster ; but we are not yet