Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-09-10

EnSllsn empire Ill lnuld' NOuCeIHluS
present conditions the Outlook of Sept.
1, in a very intelligent editorial, thus
says:
The gateway between India and At
ghanistan. and therefore the entrance to
the direct route from Russia to India, is
the famous khyber Pass. Through It
British armies have twice marched to
Afghan wars. Near its Indian end lies
the main British outpost, Peshawur; be-
yOnd its Afghan end lies kabul: mid
way is Jalalabad, to which the sole sur
viving officers of a massacred British
army escaped in 1872. The wild noun
tain country north and east of the pass
is held by many warlike tribes, practi
cally Independent of control. In the
extreme northern part of Great Britain's
Indian possessions, Just beyond the
Swat river valley, lies Chitral, where
the boundary has been lately established,
not without much grumbling on the
part of Russia and Afghanistan. Tribes
like the Afrdis and the OrakaZis num-
Der many thousand fighting men. If all
the tribes were to unite Ga not probable
EVENT., they might perhaps put quarter
of a million of men into the field. The
Afridis now in arms, are the tiercest
and widest of the tribesmen; Great
Britain claims no allegiance from them,
but has tried to secure their friendship
by subsidies given in return for their
help in keeping open the khyber Pass.
In and near the pass have been three
outposts held by British troops, chiefly
natives-Forts Maude, Lund kotal, and
Ali-Muziid, the last close to the Indian
mouth of the pass. All of these have
been seized by the tribesmen, after
severe fighting. At Fort Maude 1t was
at first reported that three hundred In
dian troops (Sepoys) had been killed,
but later news does not confirm this re-
port. Fort Lundi kOtal was poorly
garrisoned, but a brave fight was made
before it was abandoned. The fall of
Fort Ali.Muziid gives the tribesmen
control of the Khyber Pass. This, and
the facts that the whole country beyond
the Indus is In a state of cOmmOtOn and
that even as far south as Quetta trouble
is feared, make it certain that the
British army of over 10000 men, now
concentrating in the Puniah and moving
north, has serious work before it.
As we have said before, absolute peace
is hardly ever known in this wild border
land. but the tribes are now acting in
unity of time, and the presumption is
strong that they have also a unity of
purpose. What is the inspiring cause
of this attack upon British control of
the Khyber Pass: There is no evidence,
but a reasonable uspicon-reasonab
because no other theory propounded
its the facts-that the ameer of Afghan
istan is at the bottom of the mischief.
He stoutly denies this, but he could
hardly do anything else, unless ne wished
to declare war. There is good reason
to believe also that he has had much to
do with the fanatical agitation among
the Mohammedans which has been
urging holy war. and which has
created even in southern India wide
though repressed disaffection toward
the English. Back of the Ameer in
promoting fanatical agitation stands, it
is believed, the sultan of Turkey, The
sultan. the ameer, and possibly Russia.
want Great Britain to see the pOssibill-
ties of hostility at vital point in her
empire. that she may not insist too
strongly on a definite policy of her own
In eastern affairs. The London Spec
tator expresses very common con-
viction when it says "What we are
paying for, and deserve to pay for, is
our unwillingnesS to grasp the Turkish
nettle bodily. Had it been known in
India that we alone had dared to coerce
the sultan, ana that he trembled at our
words, we should have had no outbreak
on the frontier