THREATENED DISTURBANCE IN AFFGHANISTAN.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 127, 22 October 1868, Page 3

THREATENED DISTURBANCE IN AFFGHANISTAN.

From our Indian papers received last week we perceive that a somewhat threatening business lias oceuiTcd in the Hurauth country, a district in Aflghanistan. A correspondent of the Delhi Gazette writes as follows :—: — We are threatened witn. another Umbeyla business, and the frontier is so disturbed now that nothing short of a campaign of Abyssinian dimensions is expected. About the end of July intelligence was brought to Abbottabad that some tribes from tho Black Mountain (which lies between this and the Indus), about 500 strong, had advanced into the Agroah valley and attacked a thannah which is being built at a place called Oghee, about forty miles from hero in a northwesterly direction. A force of about twenty police held out against the enemy in an inclosed place with great resolution, and drove olf their assailants with a loss of at least half a dozen of their number. The police themselves appear io have escaped without a single casualty. They were speedily reinforced from the Abbottabad garrison by Colonel Eothney, who immediately marched to their relief with the sth Goorkhas and one of the two MountainTrain mule-batteries of artillery which are quartered at Abbottabad. Tho enemy assuming a threatening attitude, and mustering stronger daily, a wing of the 2nd Punjab Infantry had to be sent for, leaving the other wing and one Mountain-Train battery to garrison Abbotabad. These will probably soon follow, and be relieved by a regiment or two from Eawul Pindee. A company of Europeans are coming in from the working-party on the Blurree and Abbottabad road as I write. Eroin other journals, we learn that a considerable body of troops had been ordered to the frontier, and the Delhi Gazette, speaking of the affair, says :—: — We hope that our correspondent will prove a false prophet in his allusion to Umbeyla. If anything of a serious nature does turn up we shall have the hero of the day, Lord Napier of Magdala, out here, armed with full powers. Our own idea is, that the disturbances are but a passing breeze, and that there are no indications of a gale. The Government are, however, quite right to set the troops in motion, as a show of energy and determination is likely, more than anything else, to bring matters to a satisfactory issue. Anything like a really unsettled state of the frontier is certain to have the effect of detaining Sir John Lawrence at his post, unless indeed the Homo Government are content to let him retire, and send out Napier.