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 increased at the close of the year when the Viceroy concluded an important treaty with the Khan of Khelat in Baluchistan.  It would take us too far from our main path to turn aside into the jungle of Baluchee politics.  Suffice it to say that the long series of civil strifes in that land had come to an end largely owing to the influence of Major (afterwards Sir Robert) Sandeman.  His fine presence, masterful personality, frank, straightforward, and kindly demeanour early impressed the Khan and his turbulent Sirdars.  In two Missions which he undertook to Khelat in the years 1875 and 1876, he succeeded in stilling their internal feuds and in clearing away the misunderstandings which had arisen with the Indian Government.  But he saw still further ahead.  Detecting signs of foreign intrigue in that land, he urged that British mediation should, if possible, become permanent.  His arguments before long convinced the new Viceroy, Lord Lytton, who had at first doubted the advisability of the second Mission; and in the course of a tour along the north-west frontier, he held at Jacobabad a grand Durbar, which was attended by the Khan of Khelat and his once rebellious Sirdars.  There on December 8, 1876, he signed a treaty with the Khan, whereby the British Government became the final arbiter in all disputes between him and his Sirdars, obtained the right of stationing British troops in certain parts of Baluchistan, and of constructing railways and telegraphs.  Three lakhs of rupees were given to the Khan, and his yearly subsidy of Rs. 50,000 was doubled[301].