As Parliament is about to meet, the Indian Government, tinder
instructions from home, has agreed to place the Rules :about Special Correspondents in Afghanistan in abeyance. The correspondents are only to be "licensed," a proviso intended to keep them from saying disagreeable things, as the licence can -be revoked. The compromise may be accepted by Parliament as a " practical " one, but it would be much better to abolish the rules, and formally censure the War Department for issuing them. There is no guarantee, with this Government, that the moment Parliament disperses they will not be reissued, and ;produce the worst effect upon the Continent, where "even England," it is said, fetters correspondents, and gags the Indian Press. They have done absolutely no good, for the only im- prudent statement it was possible to publish in Afghanistan, -that of the insufficiency of ammunition in Shirpore, was tele- graphed under the Rules, and is, therefore, known to every :native telegraph-clerk between Gundamuk and Peshawur.
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