the Foreign Secretary wrote that all arrangements for the establishment of a durable Government at Kabul depended on the selection of a suitable Ruler for that province; and that, as it was essential to clear away any apprehension that the British Government contemplated territorial annexation, which might be caused by a prolonged interregnum, it would be very advantageous if one of the principal Sirdars, qualified by his family connexions, his local influence, and his personal following, could be selected as the Ruler of the Kabul State.

There was another very strong reason why the Government of India should wish to find some one to whom the administration of the country could safely be made over.  The first warning notes of a General Election were heard in India early in January.  Afghan affairs were being made a party question, and the policy of the Beaconsfield Government with regard to them was being severely and adversely criticized.  Lord Lytton was, therefore, most anxious that a definite conclusion should be arrived at as to the administration of Afghanistan, and a period put to our occupation of the northern province before the meeting of Parliament should take place.

The difficulty was to find the right man.  Abdur Rahman, who I had reason to believe would be acceptable to the army, was far away, I could not find out where, and I could think of no one else at all suitable.  Under the circumstances, I deemed it advisable to open negotiations with the several leaders of the late combination against us, who were congregated at Ghazni, and had with them the young Heir-apparent, Musa Khan.  In the middle of January I had received two communications from these people, one ostensibly written by Musa Khan himself, the other signed by seventy of the most influential chiefs; the tenor of both was the same; they demanded Yakub Khan’s restoration, and asserted his innocence as to the massacre of the Embassy.  I replied that Yakub Khan’s return was impossible, and that they must consider his abdication final, as he himself had declared that he wished it to be,[2] and a few days later I deputed the Mustaufi[3] to visit Ghazni, in the hope that he might be able to induce the leaders to make some more feasible suggestion for the government of the country.

The Mustaufi had scarcely started, before what seemed to be a reliable report reached me that Abdur Rahman was at Kanduz, on his way to Badakhshan, and I immediately communicated this news to Lord Lytton.

A fortnight later Abdur Rahman’s mother, who resided at Kandahar, informed Sir Donald Stewart that Ayub Khan had received a letter from her son, in answer to an offer from Ayub to join him at Balkh and march with him against the British.  In this letter Abdur Rahman had replied that he would have nothing to do with any of Sher Ali’s family, who had deceived him and dealt with him in the same treacherous manner that characterized Sher Ali’s dealings with the