Frederick Roberts, 1st Viscount Roberts of Kandahar

“ Moreover, recent events and arrangements have fundamentally changed the situation to which our correspondence and engagements with the Amir of Afghanistan formally applied. Our advance frontier positions at Kandahar and Kuram have materially diminished the political importance of Kabul in relation to India, and although we shall always appreciate the friendship of its Ruler, our relations with him are now of so little importance to the paramount objects of our policy that we no longer require to maintain British agents in any part of his dominions. ”

“ At the Peiwar Kotal, at Charasia, and during the fighting round Kabul, all were eager to close with the enemy, no matter how great the odds against them. Throughout the march from Kabul all seemed to be animated with but one desire, to effect, cost what it might in personal risk, fatigue, or discomfort, the speedy release of their beleaguered fellow-soldiers in Kandahar; and the unflagging energy and perseverance of my splendid troops seemed to reach their full height, when they realized they were about to put forth their strength against a hitherto successful enemy. ”

“ I understand that there is no one at Kelat-i-Ghilzai or Ghazni to stop the progress of the troops en route from Kandahar. There is no reason, therefore, why they should not reach Kabul in a very short time. ”

“ If, on the contrary, he intends to resist, I shall take my own time. The country he is occupying is, from description and map, extremely difficult and easily defensible, and each separate advance will require careful study and reconnaissance to prevent unnecessary loss of life.'
Kandahar On the morning of the 31st we marched into Kandahar, just over 313 miles from Kabul. The fever, which had attacked me rather sharply, had left me extremely weak, and I was unable to ride the whole way. ”

“ By about 20th July Kandahar was occupied by about 4000 British troops, and on the 9th August General Roberts, according to orders, started his famous march from Cabul to relieve Kandahar.
About this time Ayoob Khan’s army was considerably strengthened by Ghilzais, having an army then under his control of nearly 20,000. But the real crisis was only brewing, and the splendid skill and resource of that ablest of British generals, Sir Frederick Roberts, was soon to be rewarded in the splendid triumph of Mazra. ”

“ Immediately on crossing the Shutargardan I found myself in the midst of a hostile and warlike people, entirely dependent on the country for supplies, heavily handicapped by want of transport, and practically as completely cut off from communication with India as I was a year later on the march to Kandahar. The Afghans' fanatical hatred of Europeans had been augmented by their defeats the year before, and by the occurrences at Kabul, and they looked upon my small column as a certain prey delivered into their hands by a sympathizing and all-powerful Allah. ”

“ On this fact being communicated to the Government of India, Afzal Khan was in his turn recognized as Amir of Kabul and Kandahar. But he was at the same time informed that the British Government intended to maintain a strict neutrality between the contending parties in Afghanistan. John Lawrence, in his letter of the 20th of February, said that 'neither men, nor arms, nor money, nor assistance of any kind, have ever been supplied by my Government to Amir Sher Ali. Your Highness and he, both equally unaided by me, have fought out the battle, each upon your own resources. ”

“ The movement of the remainder of the Kabul troops towards India should be simultaneous with the advance of my division towards Kandahar, it being most desirable to limit the area of our responsibilities as soon as possible; at the same time, it is imperative that we should now show our strength throughout Afghanistan. The withdrawal, under existing circumstances, of the whole force from Kabul to India would certainly be misunderstood, both in Afghanistan and elsewhere. ”

“ Now I detest them all, and long to be out of Afghanistan for ever. It is not that I am unable to hold the country; I have held it before and could hold it again, but I have no further wish to rule such a people, and I beg of you to let me go. If the British Government wish me to stay, I will stay, as their servant or as the Amir, if you like to call me so, until my son is of an age to succeed me, or even without that condition; but it will be wholly against my own inclination, and I earnestly beg to be set free.']
[Footnote 3: Dr. Bellew was with the brothers Lumsden at Kandahar in 1857.] ”

“ Exaggerated reports of the Maiwand affair being rife in the Kabul bazaars, which were daily becoming crowded with armed Afghans from Abdur Rahman's camp, and the prospect of troops having to leave at once for Kandahar, made it more than ever necessary to bring the negotiations with the new Amir to a speedy conclusion. ”

“ The Viceroy from the first contemplated the possibility of such a general rising as the Amir now fears, and the several armies were, therefore, by His Excellency's order, made up to such strength that all Afghanistan combined could not stand against them for a moment. The Kandahar troops were ready in a very short time, and are now [Page 553] beyond Kandahar, on the road to Kabul.1 The Peshawar force was rapidly collected and pushed on; and the Amir may rest assured that the British army is advancing in ample strength. ”

“ No great battle had as yet been fought; though Ali Masjid and the Peiwar Kotal had been taken, a small force of the enemy had been beaten by Charles Gough's brigade, near Jalalabad, and a successful Cavalry skirmish had occurred near Kandahar, the Afghans had nowhere suffered serious loss, and it was not to be wondered at if the fighting men in distant villages, and in and around Kabul, Ghazni, Herat, Balkh, and other places, still considered themselves undefeated and capable of defying us. ”

“ He strongly supported my view that no time should be lost in defining the northern boundary of Afghanistan.
'Roberts went on to lay down the principle that the main body of a Russian army destined for the invasion of India must advance by Herat and Girishk on Kandahar, whence, if not defeated, the Russians must move by Ghazni, Kabul, and the Khyber. Sir Frederick Roberts pointed out that India could not place in the field, under the then conditions, more than 40,000 men, with from 130 to 140 guns. ”

“ The same excuses could not, however, be made for them, who were all soldiers by profession, as we had felt inclined to make for the residents at Agra, a great majority of whom were women, children, and civilians. The walls6 which completely surrounded Kandahar were so high and thick as to render the city [Page 485] absolutely impregnable to any army not equipped with a regular siege-train. Scaling-ladders had been prepared by the enemy, and there was an idea that an assault would be attempted ”

“ His combined force was now styled the Northern Afghanistan field force. Having seen the new amir, Abdur Rahman, formally recognised, Stewart was preparing to leave the country when intelligence reached him at the end of July of the disaster at Maiwand, and he sent Sir Frederick Roberts with a picked force of ten thousand men to march to Kandahar to retrieve the position of affairs. He himself returned to India in August with the rest of the troops by the Khaibar route. ”

“ The history of the British Empire in India has not, at least for the last thirty years, produced a hero like Your Lordship, whose soldier-like qualities are fully known to the world. The country which had been the cradle of Indian invasions came to realize the extent of your power and recognized your generalship. The victories gained by Sale, Nott, and Pollock in the plains of Afghanistan have been shadowed by those gained [Page 573] by Your Excellency. The occupation of Kabul and the glorious battle of Kandahar are among the brightest jewels in the diadem of Your Lordship's Baronage. ”

“ I am glad to be able to inform Your Highness that news reached me yesterday of the departure of a considerable force from Kandahar under the command of a brave and distinguished officer, and that a large body of troops, under command of General Bright, were advancing rapidly from Peshawar to Jalalabad and onwards viâ Gandamak to Kabul. My own force will, I hope, be in a state to march before long. ”

“ In one of my last conversations with Yakub Khan, he advised me 'not to lose sight of Herat and Turkestan.' On my asking him whether he had any reason to suppose that his representatives in those places meant to give trouble, he replied: 'I cannot say what they may do; but, remember, I have warned you.' He, no doubt, knew more than he told me, and I think it quite possible that he had some inkling of his brother's4 (Ayub Khan's) intentions, in regard to Kandahar, and he probably foresaw that Abdur Rahman Khan would appear on the scene from the direction of Turkestan. ”

“ Sir Donald Stewart’s force, marching up through Baluchistan by the Bolan Pass, entered Kandahar with little or no resistance; while another army passed through the Khyber Pass and took up positions at Jalalabad and other places on the direct road to Kabul. Another force under Sir Frederick Roberts marched up to the high passes leading out of Kurram into the interior of Afghanistan, defeated the amir’s troops at the Peiwar Kotal, and seized the Shutargardan Pass which commands a direct route to Kabul through the Logar valley. ”

“ The missing men have, I fear, been murdered. I telegraphed from Ghazni on the 15th, and from Oba Karez on the 18th August.'
I wrote also to Major-General Phayre, telling him of the date on which I expected to reach Kandahar, and that if I heard of his being anywhere near I would arrange my movements to suit his, in order [Page 482] that the two forces might make a combined attack on Ayub Khan's position. ”

“ The Afghan strife closed—let us hope for ever—with the battle of Kandahar. This conclusive fight stands in history as a signal tribute to the tenacity of the British soldier in general, and to the generalship, since tried and proved and never found wanting, of Lord Roberts. Says a historian, "It was remarkable for the generalship and cool judgment Roberts had shown, and also for the courage displayed by his troops.... On every occasion we were far outnumbered by the enemy, who were equal to our men in physical strength, and armed with nearly the same weapons ”

“ Kandahar, the scene of one brilliant episode when the victorious Roberts relieved an ominous situation, has been the centre of many ill-fated risings and mis-shapen schemes, yet of all none more so than that injudicious and most pretentious plan of uniting Quetta with Kushkinski Post by a trans-Afghan railway viâ Kandahar and Herat. No practical end can be served by such a line and, indeed upon the broadest grounds, there is absolutely nothing which can justify its construction. The policy of this country should be mistrustful of Russia always and our attitude should be actively suspicious. ”

“ In July a force of Afghans, which gathered reinforcements as it advanced, invaded Western Afghanistan from Herat, and on 27 July attacked and defeated a British brigade at Maiwand, nearly half the brigade being killed or wounded, while the Afghans captured large quantities of arms and ammunition. The small garrison of Kandahar appeared to be in danger, and Roberts at once proposed that he should lead a column from Kabul to its relief. Roberts had brought his transport to a high state of perfection, and he started from Kabul on 9 August with a picked body of 10,000 men. ”

“ The single object to which, as you are well aware, the Afghan policy of this Government has at all times been directed and limited, is the security of the North-West frontier of India. The Government of India has, however, no less invariably held and acted on the conviction that the security of this frontier is incompatible with the intrusion of any foreign influence into the great border State of Afghanistan. To exclude or eject such influence the Government of India has frequently subsidized and otherwise assisted the Amirs of Kabul. It has also, more than once, taken up arms against them. ”

“ Roberts, and was engaged in all the operations in the advance on Kabul. At Villa Kazi on 11 Dec. 1879 he risked his life in rescuing several men of the 9th lancers, who were in danger of drowning in a watercourse while the Afghans were near at hand. Lord Roberts witnessed Adams's exploit and recommended him for the Victoria Cross, which he received from Queen Victoria on 4 Aug. 1881. He also took part in the march of Lord Roberts from Kabul to Kandahar in August 1880, and was present at battle of Kandahar on 1 Sept. ”

“ France annexes the Society Islands. Invention of the electric storage battery (Faure) . In Germany, the great Cathedral of Cologne, begun in the year 1248, is completed. Diplomatic relations are renewed between Germany and the Papal See. In Afghanistan, a British force is defeated at Maiwand, but General Roberts retrieves the situation by his march to Kandahar. Abdurrahman, nephew of Shere Ali, is installed as ameer, and the insurrection raised by a rival claimant, Ayoub Khan, suppressed. In Mexico, Diaz’s term as President ends, and he is peaceably succeeded by Manuel Gonzalez (see 1884) . ”