“Well, gentlemen,” Roberts addressed a gathering of officers, “you"ll have heard the terms by now. We had three armies in Afghanistan. One, the Peshawar Valley Field Force, has already returned to India. The second, the Kandahar Field Force will withdraw as soon as the present cholera outbreak has burned itself out. That leaves us. We will remain in the Kurram, which is now under British control.”
The officers regarded Roberts with mixed emotions. Some, the younger men, sought advancement through action and military glory and hoped for a long war. The older, more experienced officers thought they had been lucky and wished to withdraw from Afghanistan and return to their families in India.
“We have several tasks to perform in the Kurram, including ensuring the tribes behave themselves. On
