Lord Dufferin held a noteworthy Durbar on Friday week at
Peshawar. It was attended, of course, by all the nobles of the district, but also by hundreds of the hill chiefs with whora the Government has relations, which is unusual, and by refugee Princes from Central Asia, and independent chiefs like the Akhoond of Swat, which is unprecedented. When the usual ceremonial ended, the Viceroy, to the surprise of his audience, made them a speech in Persian, which he has spent his leisure is acquiring. He told them of the material prosperity he found everywhere between Kurrachee and Peshawar, bade the inde- pendent chiefs welcome as guests in the Queen's name, and informed them of his hope that the good relations between Afghanistan and India would tend to produce tranquillity on the frontier. Many of the chiefs, we fear, regard tran- quillity as a very dell condition of affairs ; but their presence of itself shows how rapidly British influence is penetrating the hills, and how little the chiefs fear treachery from us. Their biographies, if they could be written, would slightly amaze London; but they are growing softer under the influence of comparative quiet, in spite of themselves. The Durbar marks a distinct improvement in the condition of the whole frontier.
Previous page
