THE AFGHAN AMIR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 9650, 16 February 1892, Page 6

THE AFGHAN AMIR.

( Anti-Jacobin,)

The Amir of Afghanistan, Abdurrahman Khan, is a ruler remarkable both for his position and his personality. His State is the last of the great Khanates of Central Asia; for while Khiva, Bokhara, and Khokand have all fallen under Russian domination, Afghanistan still remains independent and isolated; admitting no representative of European Powers, and resisting all the advances of Western civilisation ; a land of hardy tribes with a strong commercial spirit abroad, but fanatic* cally attached to their religion and their national liberty at home. Although the Amir has seen the end of all his enemies, and his word is law over all his land, he is haunted by the feeling that his position is unstable and his power ephemeral. He sees that his highland country lies like a great block right In the path of advancing European civilisation, which is pressing on him from the Oxus and from the Indus with the irresistible weight of two vast and expanding empires. They are rending the veil of a country that has hitherto lain hid behind deserts and mountains. The railways are being run close up to his frontier on either side ; he will never consent to their crossing hia border, although he knows they cannot long he kept out. He is quite aware that by subduing his people he has tamed them, that by centralising his authority, crushing the warlike refractory clans, degrading the chiefs and local notables, and governing entirely through officials who serve him with the fidelity of beaten dogs, he has more or less broken the free spirit of the Afghans, levelled the national defences, and smoothed the way for the next foreign invasion. The ruler who is unopposed is also unsupported, for without the power of resistance there can be no support; and the Amir, like all despots, is beginning tardily to recognise this axiom of political mechanics. Never again will an intruding army be met by such a rising of the tribes as was stirred up by the last two English expeditions into Afghanistan; while his disciplined troops are already saying openly that they cannot fight against English battalions. Civilisation,the Amir knows well, is fatal to Oriental liberty. To the old-fashioned Asiatic all its manners and methods are the badges of servitude; in the arts of war and peace he becomes no more than a second-hand copy of the European. So the Amir occasionally falls back upon the ancient ways, and tries to open again the choked-up springs of patriotism and religious enthusiasm. He issues proclamations reproaching the Afghans with sloth, ignorance and apathy, warning them of the perils that beset their faith and their nation, and summoning them to unite against the infidel, whether Russian or English, fox or dog. In one of these curious documents he says, " "You remain busily handling the cup of pleasure and amusement; you are engaged in the massacre of each other; but the axe will fall on your own feet. You discourse nonsense from morn to eve, and think not of your future. * * * * Your country is a mere spot under the compass of two infidels; it is a closely besieged city, and you are careless of your bonds. * * * * Sometimes I wonder that my sorrow is made a joke of, but sometimes I laugh myself." The proclamation goes on to predict that Russia and England will divide the heritage of Islam; and it ends by summoning the whole nation to arms. Another public edict, evidently intended to try the temper of his subjects, announces that, like the Shah of Persia and the Turkish Sultan, he is considering the expediency of a journey to Europe.

Such are the Amir’s moods when he surveys his own thorough handiwork, and the result of levelling down his people until they lie flat under his foot. He himself may reign quietly enough and make a pious ending, having left no enemies to forgive ; but who and what are to come after him ? There exists no precedent in the annals of Afghanistan for the peaceful succession of a son to his father ; and the present Amir’s son is hardly of the mettle required for winning a sharp contest. The trained army may taka one side or the other. To call in the foreigner would be to ruin the dynasty ; for the fatalistic feeling is spreading that the days of Afghan independence are numbered. It is impossible not to regard with interest the figure of this Oriental ruler, belonging to a type thatis rapidly vanishing, who stands defending the rearguard of retreating barbarism, and holding the last considerable post that is resolutely resisting the inroads of European ascendancy over the ancient societies of Islam,