Lord Lytton's instructions directed him to despatch without delay a
mission to Cabul, whose errand would be to require of the Ameer the
acceptance of a permanent Resident and free access to the frontier
positions of Afghanistan on the part of British officers, who should have
opportunity of conferring with the Ameer on matters of common interest
with 'becoming attention to their friendly councils.' Those were demands
notoriously obnoxious to the Afghan monarch and the Afghan people.
Compliance with them involved sacrifice of independence, and the Afghan
loathing of Feringhee officials in their midst had been fiercely evinced
in the long bloody struggle and awful catastrophe recorded in earlier
pages of this volume. Probably the Ameer, had he desired, would not have
dared to concede such demands on any terms, no matter how full of
advantage. But the terms which Lord Lytton was instructed to tender as an
equivalent were strangely meagre. The Ameer was to receive a money gift,
and a precarious stipend regarding which the new Viceroy was to 'deem it
inconvenient to commit his government to any permanent pecuniary
obligation.' The desiderated recognition of Abdoolah Jan as Shere Ali's
successor was promised with the qualifying reservation that the promise
'did not imply or necessitate any intervention in the internal affairs of
the state.
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