Pointless 'Great Game'
From Mr Philip Hensher Sir: Joseph Altham (Letters, 6 October) is correct to say that the 'topic', as it were, of the first Afghan war was to prevent Russia gaining domination over Afghanistan. However, it must be pointed out that the British had achieved this aim by diplomatic means before the dispatch of the Army of the Indus. A British officer, Eldred Pottinger, had discovered that the Persian forces besieging the city of Herat were aided, despite all official denials, by Russians. In possession of this information, Palmerston was able to force the Tsar to recall the Russian envoys in the region, Count Simonich and Yan Vitkevich, and break off all attempts to woo Dost Mohammed, the amir of Kabul. This was by any standards a successful outcome, ensuring that Afghanistan would remain out of the sphere of Russian influence for a generation. What no one has ever quite managed to explain is why it was then thought necessary to dispatch an army to depose the friendless Dost Mohammed and reinstate the deeply unpopular ex-monarch, Shah Shujah-ul-m ulk.
The supremely pointless course of the first Afghan war did absolutely nothing to further the British side in the Great Game. The disastrous outcome of that expedition for the British should serve as a lesson: know your objectives, and stop once you have achieved them.
Philip Hensher
London SW8
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