The struggle as to policy in Pathanistan still continues, the
Cabinet waiting for the detailed proposals of the Indian Government. We fancy, however, that a compromise has, in principle, been arrived at. We are to keep an Agent at Chitral who will protect and educate the lad whom it is in- tended to acknowledge as Mehtar, and the road thither will be protected by a post or two, and probably by the followers of the Khan of Dir, who must be specially rewarded. The remainder of the Expedition will return after the hot weather, and the more important Pathan chiefs will receive moderate subsidies. The arrangement is not a bad one, though we dread the attraction of the new road, but fortunately it is not in human power to make it an easy one. Shere Afzul will probably be made prisoner, but our contemporaries will do well to remem- ber that all such words as "loyalty," "rebellion," or "punish- ment," are out of place. We neither possess nor claim sovereignty in Pathanistan, and any clan chief has, so long as he will observe the rules of war, a right to fight us as invaders. The notion of making Umra Khan, or the Khan of Dir, or the Chitrali Mehtar, lord of the whole territory, is an absurdity. Pitt might as well have declared the Duke of Argyll, King of the Highlands.
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