The age-herald., 1898-01-23


 nexations have been made. The Amir of 1 Afghanistan receives eighteen laos of ru- pees per annum, a very liberal allowance. | For sixteen years the Afridis have received an annual subsidy for keeping the Khyber Pass in good order. This subsidy is ample compensation for the old-time plunder of caravans Many of the chieftans have been kept quiet by means of bribes.
 1 Its Objects.
 The so-called Forward Policy" has been l in a manner forced upon England. Briefly, i it's objects are the establishment of the | scientific frontier and the proteetorate of l Afghanistan as a dependency of England, against Russian aggression. The forward l policy took the place in 1877 of the old | "Standfast Policy" or, as 1t is called by 1 it's partisans, the "masterly inactivity pol l icy" which was inaugurated by Lawrence, l the first governor of Punjab. Lawrence l sought to attach the Afghans to England by a consistent friendly attitude toward l them and absolute non-interference with 1 their affairs. He wished to make the Indus l the western frontier of India, and leave l the Pathans and the Biluches and the Afg- | hans to their own sweet discords. At the l same time he imagined that number of | friendly independent states would form an excellent buffer for India against possible l Russian invasion. Except for the crossing | or the InuuS, the SIanOIaSL poHcy UT LdW- | renee was unchanged until 1877.
 l In thirty years this steady, careful policy | of the Punjab government accomplished much. If Afghanistan was not friendly, at | any rate comparative peace and security had been established along the borders of l India. Only one punitive expedition had to be undertaken, from 1870 to 1876, by the Punjab frontier force. In the twenty years before 1870 countless expeditions, blockades and fines had been necessary to impress the hillmen with respect for the British boundary. At the same time the tribes were kindly treated. They begun to trust the English, to feel that the Punjab gov ernment was not bent on conquest but was anxious even to support their independence. And all this had been at small cost. standfast Policy Abandoned. In 1877, however, with the prospect of war with Russia, arose the question whether, after all, buffer states wouBi prove any barrier to an inva sion of India by such a foe. While the standfast policy was very good in it's time, cheap and eau tious and steady, it is certain that inde- pendent buffer states have not been a permanent safeguard to any country, and that the British frontier was in 1877 by no means impregnable against a Russian in- vasion. It was time for Britain to move if she would arrest the advance of Russia toward Kafbul. The question really re- solved itself into this: Shall England meet Russia at the Indus or at the Hindu Koosh?
 Mountain ranges have always been much surer barriers against invasion than rivers. England'S influence must advance to the Hindu- -KooSh. Russia is there al- ready. There is no need of hurry. It IS not necessary or advisable at present to occupy Afghanistan with British troops. The military men have rushed an occupy ing force into Chitral, and the foes of the forward policy condemn the policy as whole for errors which are not necessarily part of 1t. The British sphere of influence is now contiguous with the Russian Ern- pire in Asia. It is better so for all parties concerned. The splendid fruit of the for ward policy, the determination of fast line between the two great empires, Is al- most attained. Tn 1887 the Russo-British boundary commission settled the line be- tween Russia and Afg'hanistan, and att present England and Russia are honestly endeavoring to fix a boundary in the table land east of Turkestan, where Russia will probably stop only at the Baroghil Pass.
 Unwarranted Aggression.
 The forward policy in its broad lines Is clearly the only one possible for England under present conditions, however 1t may affect her relations with the Afghan tribes. great blunder was, however, committed in 1887, when the Trans-Indus country was transferred from the control of the Pun1ab government to a commander-in- -chief re- sponsible directly to the Calcutta govern ment Since then we have secn 8 very trav-. esty of the forward policy. The military men in command have recklessly wasted men and money in the Chitral, merely be- cause in 1891 Russia advanced into the Pa mir plateau. Young officers talk of a brush with the Russians a good thing to take before breakfast The Punjab government contented itself with a frontier force of 12,- 900. This year nearly 70.000 men were placed at the disposal of Gen. Lockhart for his campaign against the Afridis.
 Pan-IsIamIc Revival.
 In addition to the two general causes of the present risings, the Pathan love of fighting and the mistrust caused by meas ures incidental to the foreign policy as pur sued by the military government of the frontier, many other remote or immediate causes might be discovered. Tn particu,ari it is commonly stated that the present com motions are the result of the ferment stir red up in the Mosen world by the victories of Western Islam over the Greeks. A sort of Pan-lsiamic revival has sprung up. 1t is even alleged, more or less openly, that the Amir of Afghanistan has been guilty of secretly abett;ng or countenancing the ris- ings The emissaries of the sultan of Tur key have certainly gone amongst the clans and magnitied the deeds of their lord against the Christians.
 But the risings among the Mohmando are chiefly among those tribes outside the Amr's authority, and that the movement of the tribes is not a revolt of Islam is shown by the hostile attitude of the Amir himsef and the utter lack Of sympathy among the Mohammedans of India Still. it Is probable that the fairy tales of Moslem conuuests in the west. distilled through the alembic of the Asiatic mind acted as a pre- cipitating cause of revolt upon the turbu- lent clansmen. The really preponderant cause Is none the less the hatred of the in- vader. who has put a stop to the plunder of the plain.