MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1885.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 128, 8 June 1885, Page 2

MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1885.

The rumour that the Ameer of Afghanistan has been murdered by his suite comes through a Russian source, and in the absence of confirmation from the Indian Government, is to be discredited. It is not, however, improbable. Abdurahman Khan has proved himself the strongest ruler that Afghanistan 'has had for many years, but his sovereignty is not universally acceptable. There are inter-tribal and faction feuds within the country, and Kuisian intrigues from without. According to the statements of some Indian conespondents, the Ameer and his suite have been at variance in consequence of Abdurahman Khan's refusal to adopt a strongly and Russian policy. Russian emissaries have received more favour at Cabul than the anti-Russian party consider safe for the country. On the other hand, if the Ameer has no. shown any strongly proclivities, he has assumed an attitude of active friendliness towards the English, and his recent consent to the occupation of Herat by the Boundary Commission, and the measures authorised for its defence, may have aroused the animosity cf the anti-English party in his dominions. Or his death may have been caused by the agency of some secret emissary in Russian employ, or representing the interests of one of the Pretenders to tho throne. Whether the news be true or not, however, the circulation of the report serves to remind us of the extreme perploxity of the Ameer's situation, the unsettled character of the country, and the treachery of its inhabitants. And in view of these considerations we cannot but feel some anxiety for the safety of that gallant little British force who are now located hundreds of miles away from the hope of assistauce, menaced by the Eussians on the north, and hedged in on the south by an Afghan army of 13,000 men, whose friendliness is questionable. Rarely has an English expedition occupied so difficult a position, and if they escape the fate of poor Cavagnari and his suite, it will be solely due to the justice and expediency of the recent British policy in relation to the Afghans, and the wisdom of the measures adopted to allay the bitterness remaining from the late bloody war.