stern Question.

Russia found ready to hand the means of impressing the Ameer with a
sense of her irresistible power. The Czar's officials had little
difficulty in picking a quarrel with the Khanate of Khokand. Under the
pretext of suppressing a revolt (which Vambery and others consider to
have been prepared through Muscovite agencies) they sent troops,
ostensibly with the view of favouring the Khan. The expedition gained a
complete success, alike over the rebels and the Khan himself, who
thenceforth sank to the level of pensioner of his liberators (1876). It
is significant that General Kaufmann at once sent to the Ameer at Cabul
a glowing account of the Russian success[298]; and the news of this
communication increased the desire of the British Government to come to
a clear understanding with the Ameer.

[Footnote 298: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 12-14;
Shere Ali's letters to him (some of them suspicious) and the replies are
also printed.]

Unfortunately our authorities set to work in a way that increased his
irritation. Lord Salisbury on February 28, 1876, instructed Lord Lytton
to offer slightly larger concessions to Shere Ali; but he refused to go
further than to allow "a frank recognition (not a guarantee) of a _de
facto_ order in the succession" to the throne of Afghanistan, and
undertook to defend his dominions against external attack "only in some
clear case of unprovoked aggression." On the other hand, the British
Government stated that "they must have, for their own agents, undisputed
access to [the] frontier positions [of Afghanistan][299]." Thus, while
granting very little more than before, the new Ministry claimed for
British agents and officers a right of entry which wounded the pride of
a suspicious ruler and a fanatical people.

[Footnote 299: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 156-159.]

To sum up, we gave Shere Ali no help while he was struggling for power
with his rivals; and after he had won the day, we pinned him to the
terms of a one-sided alliance. In the matter of the Seistan frontier
dispute with Persia, British arbitration was insolently defied by the
latter Power, yet we urged the Ameer to accept the Shah's terms.
According to Lord Napier of Magdala, he felt the loss of the once Afghan
district of Seistan more keenly than anything else, and thenceforth
regarded us as weak and untrustworthy[300].

[Footnote 300: _Ibid_. pp. 225-226.]

The Ameer's irritation