The debate in the House of Lords was commenced on
Monday by Lord Cranbrook, who spoke with the rather wooden im- petuosity for which his speeches have always been remarkable, and very much on the old lines. The Russians, he said, had considered Afghanistan the weak point in our armour. "They thought they could turn our watch-dog, the Ameer, into a bloodhound against us,"—and hence the necessity of driving the watch-dog mad by threats and demonstrations of violence. Lord Halifax, who moved the amendment on Lord Cranbrook's official motion, spoke with very strong, though very calm disapprobation of the policy of the war. He regarded the attack on the Ameer,—if it were to end in the violent rectification of the frontier,—as a pure act of "spoliation," and one that would shake the confidence of every Native Power in the fairness of the British Government.
