Lord Lytton, on 28th March, took the opportunity of some
Bills for decentralisation being brought before the Legislative Council to explain his "foreign policy." He is disinclined to leave the small States beyond the border alone, deeming that policy " atheistic," and is equally disinclined to coerce them or to bribe them. His idea is to make them friendly by negotiation, by assurances that we shall respect their independence, and by keeping up constant intercourse. He admitted that he had partly failed with Shere Ali, but attributed that failure to a wave of fanaticism spreading from Turkey to Cabul, and to the death of the Afghan negotiator at Peehawur. There is only one objection to Lord Lytton's policy, and that is that it has never yet succeeded. The Mussulman States of Central Asia are not willing to be " friendly," that is, to admit European Envoys, whom they consider spies, unless we give them something in return, something tangible, which they can mention when accused of being too favourable to the Infidel. It costs them a great deal of trouble and no small unpopularity to keep British Envoys, sure to be poking their noses everywhere, from being attacked and murdered, and they want some compen- sation. Lord Lytton says, in return, he will help them when the hour of disaster arrives, but Afghans do not comprehend bills at thirty years' sight. They want a trifle in hand, and if they do not get it, will see if they cannot obtain it elsewhere. A very little certain cash, not liable to be stopped on its way to the Treasury, gives an Afghan Ameer a trustworthy body-guard, and a trustworthy body-guard is just the one instrument he is always thirsting for.
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