ENGLAND IN THE EAST

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 79, 27 December 1928, Page 16

ENGLAND IN THE EAST

EPIC TRAGEDY RECALLED ONE SURVIVOR OF 16,000 A GENERAL WITHOUT AN ARMY England’s aggressiveness in the East is one of the wonders of the world. No other nation has established herself in anything like the strength of England, and none other have experienced those epic reverses that travel cheek by jowl with such experiences. Away back in 1840 England invaded Afghanistan and succeeded in dethroning Dost Mahomed from the throne, but that was only the prelude to pne of the most ghastly massacres in the history of England's enterprises in the Orient. England then made the mistake of seating on the throne Shah Soojah, who was hated on his own account and was regarded as a traitor to his own country, which he probably was; Following the change an insurrection broke out on . November 2, 1841. Sir Alexander Burnes lived in Cabul city itself, and Sir W. Macnaghten and the military commander, Major-General Elphinstone, were in cantonments at some little distance. The insurrection might have been put down in the first instance •with hardly the need even of Napoleon's “whiff of grape-shot.” But it was allowed to grow up without an attempt at control. Sir Alexander Burnes could

not be got to believe that it was anything serious, even when. a fanatical and furious mob were beseiging his own house. lie harangued the raging mob and endeavoured to get them to see reason. He did not seem to understand right up to the last moment that by reminding them that he was their old friend he was only giving them a new reason for demanding his life. He and his brother, were hacked -to pieces with Afghan knives. The murder of Burnes was not the climax; it was only the beginning. The English troops were quartered in cantonments outside the city and at some little distance from it. They were attacked and actually compelled to abandon the forts in which the comissariat was stored, so that .the forces were at once threatened with famine and an enemy in arms. Sir W. Macnaughten was a .man of high character but weak and credulous, and the commanding officer was old, infirm, and tortured by disease, so that the higher command was not dependable. Then a new figure appeared upon the ■ scene in the person of Akbar Khan, the son oftha dethroned Shah; • He was a daring, clever and unscrupulous young man. From the moment he entered Cabul he became the leader of the insurrection. Macnaghten, persuaded by the military commander that the position was hopeless, consented to treat with Akbar.

Arrival of Chiefs.

Before his arrival the chiefs of the insurrection had offered terms which made the ears of our envoys tingle. Such terms had noj; before been even suggested to British soldiers. They were simply unconditional surrender. McNaughten indignantly rejected them. Everything went wrong with him, however; the English forces were beaten again and again by the Afghans. Our officers never faltered in their duty, but the melancholy truth had to be told that the men, most of whom were Asiatics, at last began to lose heart, and would not face the enemy. So the envoy was compelled to enter into terms with Akbar. The latter received him with the studied insolence of a haughty conqueror over an ignoble and humiliated enemy. It was agreed that the British troops should leave Afghanistan at once; that Dost Mohamed should be sent back at once, and that on his return Soojah should be allowed to take himself off to India or wherever he wished to go; and that some of the British officers should be left behind in Cabul as hostages. The evacuation did not take place at once, although the winter was setting in. Macnaughten seemed to still have some lingering hope that something would turn up to relieve him from the shame of quitting the country, and it must be owned that he does not seem to have any intention of carrying out the terms of the agreement, if by any chance he could escape from them. On both sides there were dallyings and delays. At last Akbar Khan made a new and startling proposal to England’s envoy. It was that they too should enter into a secret treaty, should unite their arms against the other chiefs, and should keep Soojah on the throne as the nominal king, with Akbar as his vizier. Macnaughten caught at the proposal. He had entered into the terms of the negotiations with the Afghan chiefs together; he now consented to enter into a secret treaty with one of the chiefs to turn their joint arms against the others. It would be idle and shameful to attempt to defend such a policy. It could be excused by considering the total circumstances of the English position, the man- ? er , ’? wll ich his nerves and moral fibre had been shakened and shattered by calamities, and his doubts whether he place any reliance on the promises of the chiefs. When Macnaghten went out at noon the next day to confer with Akbar on tne banks of a neighbouring river, three of his officers were with him.

Envoys Surrounded. Akbar was ominously surrounded by friends and retainers. These kept press-" ing round the unfortunate envoy. Some remonstrance was made by one of the English officers, but Akbar said it was of no consequence as they were all in the secret. Not many words were spoken. The expected conference had hardly begun when a signal was given and the envoy and officers were suddenly seized from behind. A scene of wild confusion followed in which hardly anything was clear but the one most horrible incident. Ihe envoy struggled with Akbar, who had himself seized Maenaghten; Akbar drew from his belt one of a pair of pistols which Maenaghten had presented him with a short time before and shot him through the body. The fanatics hacked the bodies of the others with knives. Of the three officers, one wns killed on the spot; the other two were forced to mount Afghan horses and were carried away as prisoners. After an agonising time the withdrawal from Cabul was commenced in the heart of a cruel winter. The English had to make their way through the awful pass of Koord Cabul. This stupendous gorge runs for five miles between the mountain ranges so narrow, lofty and grim that in the winter season the rays of the sun can hardly pierce its darkness, even at noontide. Down the centre dashes a precipitous mountain torrent so fiercely that the stern frosts of that terrible time could not stay its course. The snow lay in masses on the ground; the rock and stones that raised their heads above the snow in the way of the unfortunate travellers were slippery with frost. Soon the white snow began to be stained and splashed with blood. Fearful as the Koord Cabul pass was, it wns only a degree worse than the road which for two whole days the English had to traverse to reach it. The army which set out from Cabul numbered more than 4000 fighting men. of whom Europeans, it should be said, formed but a small proportion, and some 12.000 camp followers of all kinds. There wore also many women and children. including Lady Macngghten. widow of the murdered envoy; Lady Sale, whose gallant busband was holding .Tellabibad nt the near end of the Khyber Pass on the Indian frontier; Mrs. Sturt nnd her daughter, soon to be widowed hr the death of her young husband. Mrs. Trevor nnd her seven children, and many other pitiable fugitives.

The Winter Journey.

The winter journey would have been cruel and dangerous in times of peace; but this journey had to be accomplished in the midst of something far worse than common war. At every step of the road, every opening of the rocks, the unhappy crowd of confused and heterogenous fugitives were beset by bands of savage