The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-01-09

the thought, seemed to hold tnet oucfe a"
might disavow his sons acts, in order that
he might recommeace the war, which, we
are told, lis very heavy for the. English the
invaded country being too cold in winter
and the heat in summer being insppport-
able General Won Kaufman must have
counted largely on the credulity of his
listener. ..,., 4rs.
OF GREAT IMPORTANCE.
"The pith Of these semi-ofticial communi-
cations lies in the facts that the Gear thus
proclaims his intention to abstain from
meddling that the Amecr has arrived in
the Oxus Valley with whatever amount OF
force may be meant by all his bat
talions TINT he had solicited leave
to visit st. Petersburg, and that,
for what it may be worth, Yakoob
Khan was intrusted with power to nego-
tiate settlement which the Ameer might
repudiate. AS to General Kaufmann's
opinions on the war and its results SO far.
we may note them only to say that
he was not likely to state frankly
his real judgment, but to rut forth
such views as he thought might be
useful to his friends abroad. If the
Russian General were so satisfied as he
seemed it may be hoped that no rash
tongue in Tashkend will disturb his COM
placency."
HISTORY DOES NOT REPEAT ITSELF.
The Standard of to-day has the following
in an editorial on the HERALD's despatch
from Tashkend:-ssThe interview is SO far
interesting that it shows that the Russians
in Central Asia still indulge in the belief
tina. the Ameer has actually created q for
midable army. They also appear to possess
| quite as. vivid recollection of the
Afghan blunder Of 1871 as the poll
ticians of the mastery inactivity
school. But both the Russians and
the deyotees of Lord Lawrence ignore
tho fact that these biunders were caused by
repeated in the same century. This being
| so, it is evident that those blunders repre-
sent no valid basis from which to deduce
the argument that all subsequent Afghan
wars, including the present one, are
! to witness a repetition of similar err
rors and disasters General Kaufmann's
opinions with regard to the course
Of the war up to- the present
point are hardly worth moments notice,
even on the assumption that they are not
expressions of sincere ignorance. He APP
pears or Affects to imagine that our sue
cesses on the Afghan frontier hitherto have
been obtained by the merest freak Of good
fortune; that we were defeated ON the first
day of the engagement, and were successful
on the second through bad generalship ON
the part Of the Ameer, who scattered his
troops too much.
NO GAG LAWS.
"As to the assertion that the reverses
already experienced by our troops have
been concealed by the English journals, we
were under the impression that by some
persons the very reverse was held to be the
case. and that it was rather laid to the
charge of the British newspaper press that
petty and insignificant delays and checks
we're magnifed into serious repulses.
General Kaufman probably imagines
that our India Office exercises as
close q supervision over tho columns
of the English press as he exercises over
the doubtless very accurate reports which
occasionally tighten the dreary monoto-
journals, the Tashkend Gazette. It would
be waste of time and labor to endeavor to
convince him of his mistake.
| WHARF Is THE FRONTIER?
General Kaufman is more instructive
when he condescends to enlighten the world
as to the whereabouts of the Amecr, who ap-
pears 10 be still within the Afghan territory at
Mazar-i-Sharif, about eighteen miles east
of Balkh. 1t is noteworthy that the Gen.
eral speaks of this place as being close to
| the Russian frontier, which is now being
pushed forward by few strokes of the pen
to the Oxus. Mazar-i-Sharif is more than
| two hundred miles distant from the
ostensible Russian frontier, as laid
down on the official map, but
only fifty miles from the Oxus,
which is now, according to General Kanf-