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Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5585, 18 January 1879, Page 4

The news which we publish this morning of the advance on Ghuznee, that has been ordered from Candahar, shows that, whatever may bo the character of the peace negotiations proceeding, those negotiations are not in any way hindering the active prosecution of hostilities. That negotiations are pending may bo inferred from the announcement that terms of peace, described os honourable, have been sent to Ynkoob Khan. Pending his answer, the army of the South is not to remain at Candahar, which it reached on Deo. 9, but a portion is advancing by this time on Ghuznee, a fortress about eight or ten days’ march northward and eastward on the Oabul road. This place, believed at the time by the Afghans to be impregnable, was the scene of one of the most brilliant achievements of the war of 1838*42; an achievement showing the gallantry of some subordinate officers rather than capacity on the part of the general commanding. Either through simple neglect, or owing to an un-

founded contempt for the enemy fl strength, Sir John Keane marched out of Candahar and took the route for Oabul, without waiting for his siege artillery, which had not started from Quettah. When * the army arrived before Ghuznee the extent and massive character of the walls, well manned as they were, made it clear that the place could not be taken without a regular siege, which, in the condition of the army, was impossible. Retreat seemed inevitable, when a last reconnaissance was resolved upon, in the desperate hope of finding a weak point of attack. The Engineers discovered that one of the gates that looked towards Cabul had not, by some neglect, been built up, and reported to the General the practicability of blowing it in with gunpowder, provided the thing were done quickly. Sir John Keane at once prepared for an assault. The engineer officers advancing blew in the gate with the greatest gallantry, the stomers rushed in, and after a short but desperate fight the town was taken. During the action General Sale, who afterwards defended Jellalabad with such heroism and success, had a narrow escape. He had been cut down by an Afghan soldier who was overpowering him, when an officer came to the General’s rescue.

The fact that the garrison of Candahar—to return to the present campaign —fled the other day to Herat instead of to Ghuznee, is proof of the demoralisation of this garrison, hut not of the demoralisation of any other portion of the Afghan forces. The peculiarity of Afghan warfare is the want of cohesion on the part of the enemy. The nation is a collection of clans which, as the history of the last war shows, take the field together or separately, just as circumstances may require or the leaders may choose. In 1838 there was fighting neither in the Bolan Pass, nor at Quettath, nor in the Kojuck Pass, nor at Candahar, the unopposed entry into which ended the famous perilous march through the southern passes. The army had bribed its way right through. On this subject, Havelock afterwards the famous commander of the Cawnpore column in the great Indian Mutiny—expressed himself in his account of the war in very strong terms, giving it as his opinion that the effect of one good general action would be more lasting on the enemy than all the bribes that could be given them. As he had said, so it came to pass. Though bribery carried the army of the Indus in safety to Candahar past all the formidable difficulties of the Southern Passes, the army had to fight hard at Ghuznee, and was only saved from retreat, temporary but fatal to its prestige, with the bribed tribes in its rear, by the neglect of the enemy to comply with an ordinary precaution of war. There is, therefore, no security that when General Primrose arrives before Ghuznee he will not be opposed, although the British troops have marched from the head of the Bolan to Candahar unopposed, and probably have paid heavily in cash for the privilege which they might have conquered, but with greater expenditure of time. A few days will settle the matter beyond a doubt.