THE AFGHAN CAMPAIGN.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, 15 February 1879, Page 5

THE AFGHAN CAMPAIGN.

? We extract the following items in reference to the progress of events in Afghanistan from the Indian papers received by the mail ; — EXCITING SCENES AT THE PEIWAR KATHUL FIGHT. The special correspondent of the Englishman with General Roberts's column concludes his account of the Peiwar Kathul fight as follows : — "-The more one sees of the position, the more one is amazed at its ever having been taken. It ought to be impregnable, and probably the result might have been different if the right column had not surprised them on the left. The accounts of the fight show that the enemy fought with the greatest desperation; they had stockaded the hills, and were driven ont of them only at the point of the bayonet. Numerous hand-to-hand fights took place. So close was it sometimes that Captain Cook, of the Goorkhas, who flung himself over a breastwork and ran a mau with his sword, could not get it out. An Afghan rushed up and struck him in the face, and was pistolled by Major Galbraith, Poor Kelso was shot at one of these stockades ; he was with the leading gun of his battery ; he thought the stockade was clear, having got the leading mule over, but saw it was full of men, who must have come back ; he turned round to stop the second gun, and was shot through the back of the head. Anderson, of the 23rd, hearing calls for support, rushed forward with some 20 men of his regiment ; they were met by a larger body of Afghans, who overpowered them, killing nearly all their number, shooting Anderson in the shoulder, and cutting him down. He killed two of them, but it was no use, they slashed him with their knives, and barbarously cut his head off, and carried it away. It must have presented a wonderful scene, this fight through dark pine forests, no one knowing quite where they were going. Kegiuients hurried up losing their way, but always pressing forward, driving the nearly invisible foe back. Our loss is supposed to be about 150 killed and wounded ; the enemy's not known, though it must be very heavy. At one stockade, after 10 minutes' fighting, 42 dead bodies were counted. The 72nd Highlanders, the sth Goorkhas, the 12th Punjab Infantry, and four Horse Artillery guns are camped here, the £th Foot being behind on the Pass. The captnred guns are to be placed in the Korm Fort. "The Pathans of the 29th Punjaub Native Infantry are recruited from beyond our border. They were, in short, the countrymen, and perhaps the relations of some of the men they were going to fight against. They behaved most disgracefully. They would simply not fight. At the first volley they ran back, and, I hear, tried to run away from the scene of the fighting. They driven up, their officers imploring of them not to disgrace the regiment ; but they would not fight. They kept hiding and skulking behind bushes and rocks, and they were that day more of an encumbrance than a help in the battle. Small bodies of the men were brought up by officers to the front, and they fired off their rifles when under the eye 3of their officers, but they neither showed nor pretended to show any enthusiasm for the fight. The Sikhs of the regiment, notwithstanding the preponderating influence of the Pathans, behaved well, but they must have been more or less cowed by the Afghan influence." AN UNOPPOSED OCCUPATION. Jellalabad was occupied by General Sir Samuel Browne on the morning of the 20th December, without opposition. The army marched into the town through the eastern or Peshawur Gate, and marched out' through the western or Kabul Gate. The fort is almost precisely in the condition in which it was left by our troops at the close of the old war. The same long street, covered in at a height of 40ft, still runs straight through from east to west. The I walls and the bastions, thongh from time i to time repaired after the shattering of earthquakes, are the same. The very houses in which our officers lived are, some of them at least, still standing, and most interesting of all, the plot of ground along the inner side of part of the fort, projecting from the west towards the river north of the Peßhawur Gat?, and which served as the cemetery of the European dead, is still pretty much as it was. ' EXECUTION OF AFGHAN MAKAUDBKS. A correspondent of the Times of India, under date December 30, furnishes the following account of the execution of Afghan marauders: — "The day before Christmas the Koorum Valley witnessed a tragical scene, and to-day, the day before New Year's Day, the valley witnessed one still" more tragical. Four Afghans belonging to the tribe of the Jajis, who were captnred on Thursday while cutting camp followers to pieces in the Durwaza Pass, were brought into camp under a strong escort. General Koberts, knowing the depredations the Afghan tribes have been committing, resolved to make a stern example of British authority and ordered the prisoners to be hanged. Two others who' were brought into camp afterward were ordered to be publicly lashed. The scene of the execution was close to the headquarters camp. A number of rice-field platforms slope down toward the branch of the Koorum river, beyond which three low hills tower around. The day was warm and brilliantly snnny, and groups of natives sat on the dry pebbly bed of the river, and the low hills around, patiently waiting the execution, which they apparently could not understand. Under an embankment facing the stream stood the gallows, a rough telegraph pole stretched across two npnght poles, with four nooses dangling from the centre. At 11 o'clock the four prisoners were brought to the foot of the gjdlows, accompanied by a strong escort of native infantry. The prisoners were without head-dresses, and their clothes were hanging in tatters, and with their long

black hair and keen Bhtrp faces looked thoroughly unscrupulous ruffians. All was soon over, and the bodies were cast into one grave beneath the gallows. Of the other prisoners one received the lashes unconcernedly. The other shouted that he would avenge the deaths of those who had been hanged. He was taken back to prison, and will probably be hanged tomorrow. These events are causing a profound sensation in the country around. TBKACHERY IK THE BANKS. One unfortunate circumstance has rather tended to mar the complete brilliancy of the story of General Roberts's victory at the Peiwar KotheL Treachery was discovered in the ranks of one of the native regiments, the 29th Punjab Infantry. There were several Afreedle recruits in this regiment, but no suspicion of any disloyalty amongst them existed, and they were accordingly put in the front line on the night of General Roberta's first attack. When silence during the advance was above all things necessary, two rifles were fired off from the ranks of the 29th, just as they neared the enemy. This signal was immediately recognised by a response of two shots from the enemy's works, the Afghan defenders of which stood at their anna, and made the vigorous resistance which foiled our first attempt. It was further discovered that about a dozen men of the 59th Begiment had left the ranks, and returned to camp declaring that they would not fight against their brother Afreedies. It seems that for some time previously some moolahs (priests) had been preaching to the Pathans and Afreedies in our ranks that the Ameer desired a Jehad, or religious war, against the infidels, and that the sole object of the British was to destroy the Afghan religion and annex Afghanistan. Led away by these persuasions, several of the comrades of the disaffected men, who had gone to visit their friends in Afghanistan during our regimental leave season, had not returned on the expiry of their furlough. Their comrades remaining in the ranks had therefore formed a league not to fight against them, and they had induced one of their native officers to join in the plot. A general court-martial was held, and all were tried. The man who fired the first shot was hanged, the officer (who ought to have been hanged, too) was sentenced to fourteen yeare' penal servitude, and the remainder of the malcontents to various terms of imprisonment The effect haß been salutary, and no further signs of disaffection have shown themselves in any of the native corps.