The Storms Of Love

AUTHOR’S NOTEThe Russian infiltration into Afghanistan in 1873 was a mistake on the part of the Viceroy of India, Lord Northbrook, and the Gladstone Government in England. Afghanistan, the wild, mountainous independent Moslem country to the North of India was governed by the Amir Sher Ali after a bloody struggle for the succession. Sher Ali had no wish to be beholden to either the British or the Russians, but, as the former crept even closer to his Northern borders, he was wise enough to know that he would have to seek the protection of one or other of them. He feared the Russians more than the British and he therefore sent a special envoy to the Viceroy, Lord Northbrook, in 1873 offering a Treaty, which, in return for his allegiance to the British, would guarantee him an annual subsidy and recognise his youngest son, Abdulla Jan, as his heir. Lord Northbrook, a dry stick of a man, colourless and unimaginative and more interested in statistics than people, was instructed by Mr. Gladstone to ‘tick off’ Sher Ali for the imprisonment of his eldest and rebellious son Yakah Khan. Offended and angry Sher Ali turned to Russia and there was no doubt that Lord Northbrook’s action was responsible for the endless conflict with Afghanistan, stirred up by the Russians, that followed. Today we cannot help wondering if the Russian influence in 1878 and their provocation thereafter with Afghanistan, might in some way have influenced their decision and in 1981 to override and conquer it. Historically Lord Northbrook who resigned as Viceroy of India in 1875 was succeeded by Lord Lytton. He was unambitious, unconventional, a dreamer and a romantic poet. He was faced with one trial after another – the most famous of the century, the Second Afghan War, m******e and financial disaster. But his handling of the famine brought permanent advantages to India and his foresight strengthened Disraeli’s Afghan policy and made it workable. Through every difficulty he never lost the support and sympathy of Queen Victoria.