KAISER HOAXED BY BOBUS INDIAN RAJAH.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15130, 26 January 1917, Page 3

KAISER HOAXED BY BOBUS INDIAN RAJAH.

FAILURE OF MISSION TO AFGHANISTAN. AMEER TRUE TO HIS WORD. Interesting: disclosures as to efforts made by Germany to stir up dissension in Afghanistan and India were made in the House of Commons by Mr Chamberlain, replyin gto Sir Edward Cornwall. He said: “In the spring of 1915 the German Government decided to send a mission to Afghanistan. For this purpose they selected from among a number of Indian anarchists in Berlin a young landowner from Oudh, who posed to them as a ruling chief, and as such was received in audience by the Emperor. “This person was accompanied by a party of German officers, some Turks, and another Indian anarchist, a Moslem. The principal German officer, Lieut, von Hentig, was the bearer of a letter from the German Chancellor to the Ameer, in which the latter was invited to, advise the pretended Rajah how best India might be liberated from British tyranny. “Yon Hentig was also .charged to make important revelations to the Ameer regarding the relations which the German Government hoped would in future exist between Afghanistan, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. “The mission broke up in Persia, and succeeded in making its way in small parties into Afghanistan in the late summer. They were arrested on arrival, and eventually conveyed to Kabul towards the end of the year. There is reason to believe that the Ameer and his people quickly appraised these Germans and the Indian adventurers by whom they' were accompanied at their true value. “It is true that the intervention of Turkey under German influence created a complication, and placed His Majesty tjie Ameer in an exceedingly difficult position. But at the outbreak of the war His Majesty gave the Viceroy the most solemn assurances of his intentions to preserve the neutrality of his country, and it is with great satisfaction that i acknowledge on behalf of His Majesty’s Government the loyalty of the Ameer to his pledged word—as sacred to the, true Moslem as to ourselves. “His Majesty has firmly refused the inducements—as seductive as they are unrealisable—held out to him to induce him to forsake his Ally, and has used his influence to prevent disturbances on the frontier. “The Ameer dismissed the mission in May last. It would not be in the public interest to state what has become of the various members; but some ,of them have been captured by the Russians and i the British after leaving Afghanistan. “The estates of the Indian landowner have been sequestered by the Governent of India, “Letters were also addressed by the German Chancellor to a number of ruling chiefs.” ' ' ■ T.,