Lancaster Standard and County Advertiser. — 1898-11-25 (Lancaster, Lancashire, England)

ISBO. He found the sountry in a state of anarchy, tribe against tribe, faction against faction, and human life as cheap as dirt. With an iron hand—if not indeed with a bloody hand—Abdur Rahman has , altered all this. Afghanistan is still a nittine of mixed peoples, as it over was, but at least they are united and at peace. He I has crushed out lawlessness, damped out rebellion, put down rival factions, and made Afghanistan a nation to be reckoned with. Although an Eastern and a Mohammedan, he has not that unchanging aversion for Western ideas so characteristic of the general Moslem ruler. Afghanistan has its gunfactories, and its engine work:, and undti Abdur Rahman it may, if he is spared, rise to his ideal as a military power to be re. spected. Miss Hamilton had many eons srsations with the Ameer about Ins relations to I Britain and Russia. Everybody knows that Afghanistan is a buffer state between Russia and British India. The Anser's own way of putting it is that he is a mountain goat, with a wolf on one side and a lion on the other. Thus does he hit off the situation in a humorous, though perhaps painfully true, sentence. But how does the Ameer regard the rival Powers? Miss Hamilton says he has told her that it is not a question of his own likes and dislikes, but of his interests, and his interests, he thinks, are bound up with ours. Unfortunately, Abdur Rahman has been to Russia but not to England. During those anxious years when British bayonets kept Shah Shuja and Dost Mohammed on the throne, Abdur Rahmut was a fugitive on Russian soil. For twelve years the Russians entertained him as their guest, and they treated him handsomely too. They allowed him X 2,500 a year, and gave him perfect freedom. At the same time they were fair to him. When he contemplated rising a aiiist us, the Russian Government plainly told him he need not look to them for assistance against the British; and later they assured him that if he left their territcry on a warlike IlliEt9loll he would not us than Russia usually has been, and though tgeßbliall'Adiaoin:witteeedilalf folt:rnesreretfeiriso:rg;hicillilisunthaw:elt:ree fairer never for.a i owesto to him at the time, she dLsconntemineed Ins threatened attack upon British influence and as Engl raakißhirnt7„z::::::.:.hnia!it,Thh:earitalihoelpltis,ta:l,l7!;u'fic° of ansingratawe t lie:tri:f:lirnedev.cloides-e.,h,iihdhllV:at4nal'inwPedlit'niildl;clltladhetpwpa.hei:Tarte.'..t asked was that he should be faithful to us. although having eaten the salt of Russia. he would never do anything which would. manently_ ally himsclf with us.  Miss Hamilton appears to think that the Amcor regards Russia as a greater Power than Britain, and is friendly to 11$ not so much for friendship's sake, as for his own  interests. There may be something in this, but as students of Eastern politics, in all deference to Miss Hamilton, we do not think there is quite so much as she thinks. British history in Afghanistan ii certainly full of bitter humiliations to us. If ever we showed ourselves a weak and a vacillating people it was to the Afghans. We know how terribly they repaid WI for it—and we know, too, how righteously in the end British ary,,,er flamed out, and British steel draek the blood of those who had so inhunnudy outraged all the canons oven of savage warfare. Afghanistan remembers this do; rebuilding of Cabal, every inch of the road from Cahill to Khandahar, teem with lessons of British might and British readine.s to avenge insult and wipo out disaster. The Ameer is shrewd enough to remember all this, and s long as he does ho is bound to remember that Britain is a Power to be reek oned with. We quite admit that it is to the Amour's interests to ally himself with us rather than with Russia. We have done more for him than Russia ever can, and at. though Oriental gratitude is not one of the most enduring virtues on the earth, the Ameer would be committing kingly suicide if lie were to turn from the band that ha, done so much for him. Frankly, we do not think he will ever do this. His famous loyal speech of 1885, and his repudiation of the rising on the Frontier last ycar, appi Sr to us positive proofs of his real friendship for tL9, as apart fmn political expediency. He knows, too, that the integrity of his own country is bound up with our posiossion sq India, and if a monarch cannot entertain feelings of genuine respect and friendship for the Power whieb preserves his kingdom to him, there is no hope for him being friendly to anybody.