Lord It. Churchill made two statements of some importance. One
was that the last Russian arrangement about Zulfikar com- pletely satisfies Lord Dufferin, who knows precisely what the Ameer wants ; and that in the opinion of the India Office our obligations to Afghanistan have been fully met. Another was that in his (Lord Randolph's) opinion no ally could possibly have been more loyal to another than Abdarrahman had been to Queen Victoria. The Ameer had, in fact, "thrown in his lot with the British," and his conduct had doubled the British obligation to protect him. That is noteworthy, first, because the honesty of the Afghan Prince was not originally the Tory idea; and secondly, because if there should be war with Russia, Lord Randolph's words deepen the impression that the reason, or pretext, for it will be menace to the Ameer's dominions. The Liberal policy, it will be remembered, is to aid the Ameer to the utmost extent consistent with his wishes and the interests of India, but to leave him independent. The Tory policy is to assume that he is under a Protectorate, which might be made effective even against his wishes.
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