He occupied this position just
as far as and no further than he could make it good. And he could make it
good only over a very circumscribed area. Even more than had been true of
Shah Soojah's government forty years previously was it true of Roberts'
government now that it was a government of sentry-boxes. He was firm
master of the Sherpur cantonment. General Hills, his nominee, held a
somewhat precarious sway in Cabul in the capacity of its Governor,
maintaining his position there in virtue of the bayonets of his military
guard, the support of the adjacent Sherpur, and the waiting attitude of
the populace of the capital. East of Cabul the domination of Britain was
represented by a series of fortified posts studding the road to Gundamuk,
whence to Jumrood the occupation was closer, although not wholly
undisturbed. When a column marched out from Sherpur the British power was
dominant only within the area of its fire zone. The stretch of road it
vacated as it moved on ceased to be territory over which the British held
dominion. This narrowly restricted nature of his actual sway Sir
Frederick Roberts could not but recognise, but how with a force of 7000
men all told was it possible for him to enlarge its borders? One
expedient suggested itself which could not indeed extend the area of his
real power, but which might have the effect, to use a now familiar
expression, of widening the sphere of his influence.
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