CANDAHAR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1092, 11 August 1880, Page 2

CANDAHAR.

Thb news of vthe/. destruction of the Candahar force is deplorable in the extreme, taking place' as it does at the moment that^» tlie government Viof- Af r ghanistan was in.course of being handed over, to Abdur Rahman Khan. Ayopb Khan, brother of the ex- Ameer Yakoob Khan, has so long threatened Oandahar. that it came to be thought he was powerless to leave Herat, which he governed. It seems,, however, : that fin^pg:t!te^irißp^'.^f; > €aud ; ato^iil^.«6 weak, in consequence- of ; Sir Donald Stewart's move on to Ghuzni and Cabul, be persuaded his Cabuli troops and disaffected tribe, on the route to advance, with the terrible result so briefly stated by Lord Hartington in the the House of Commons/ The seat of the disaster will, we' believe, be found to "be at Girishk, seventy miles beyond Candahar, .towards Herat; to which place the British force" had advanced. Ifiso, Candahar itself, may not ' yfet'.-be reached ; but" thiß populous fanatical 'city would at once rise, and the small force there may also have fallen, The position is critical, .because the Cabul force under Generals Stewart and Roberts is -far off, # with Ghuzni— itself a centre of disaffection — between them and Candahar. It appears as if the worst fears ot Lords Lawrence and Northbrook were- being realised, and that disaster is the inevitable result of Afghan invasion. From the brief news telegraphed it. .is > impossible to conjecture what will;hie 'jdoiie^ but we take it that great anxiety- liiust' be ' felt both ih'lndia and in' England, asto the end of our -military^occupation; ot the country. ; --' ■;. v .'.-i : ' : '^?y' :^;- ■■;,■'•

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