=Source.=--_Parliamentary Publications_, "Afghanistan," C 2,190 of
1878, p. 225.
_Extract from a Memorandum by Lord Napier of Magdala._
We have unfortunately managed Shere Ali badly. Perhaps it might
not have been possible, with our scruples and his want of them, to
have managed him advantageously; but it must be admitted that we
have not given him the reasons to unite himself with us that he
naturally expected. First, we stood aloof in his struggles for life
and empire, ready to acknowledge whoever might prove the master
of Afghanistan. Then, when Shere Ali had subdued his enemies, he
came forward to meet us with an alliance, but we were willing to
form only an imperfect alliance with him. He was willing to trust
us, provided that we would trust him; but we felt that we could
not bind ourselves to unreserved support of a power whose ideas of
right and wrong were so different from ours. We therefore proposed
to bind him, leaving ourselves (according to his idea) free, and he
recoiled from this bargain. His friendly feelings, however, were
not entirely alienated by that experience of us; he abstained from
any action towards Seistan at our desire, and he believed that
the mediation which we pressed upon him would have ended by the
restoration of the portion of Seistan that Persia had occupied in
his days of trouble. And not only Shere Ali, but the whole Afghan
people, believed that we should restore to them what they had
lost. When they found that we had allowed Persia to obstruct and
ill-treat our arbitrator, and to retain much of her encroachments,
they looked upon us as a weak and treacherous people, who, under
the guise of friendship, had spoiled them in favour of Persia.
This I believe to be the root of Shere Ali's discontent with us.