' The guarantee against foreign aggression was vague and
indefinite, and the Government of India reserved to itself entire
'freedom of judgment as to the character of circumstances involving the
obligation of material support.'
The Ameer replied to the notice that a mission was about to proceed to
Cabul by a courteous declinature to receive an Envoy, assigning several
specious reasons. He was quite satisfied with the existing friendly
relations, and desired no change in them; he could not guarantee the
safety of the Envoy and his people; if he admitted a British mission, he
would have no excuse for refusing to receive a Russian one. An intimation
was conveyed to the Ameer that if he should persist in his refusal to
receive the mission, the Viceroy would have no other alternative than to
regard Afghanistan as a state which had 'voluntarily isolated itself from
the alliance and support of the British Government.' The Ameer arranged
that the Vakeel of the Indian Government should visit Simla, carrying
with him full explanations, and charged to lay before the Viceroy sundry
grievances which were distressing Shere Ali. That functionary took back
to Cabul certain minor concessions, but conveyed the message also that
those concessions were contingent on the Ameer's acceptance of British
officers about his frontiers, and that it would be of no avail to send an
Envoy to the conference at Peshawur for which sanction was given, unless
he were commissioned to agree to this condition as the fundamental basis
of a treaty.
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