Bayonets Along the Border by John Wilcox Read Free Book Online

was established, but went along with it.’
    ‘So there was an actual line?’ asked Alice.
    ‘Yes. Well, not exactly on the ground but pillars being knockedin to mark it – much to the local tribesmen’s disgust. From 1894, it formally extended the area of British responsibility into Afghanistan and as a result the lands of Chitral, Bajaur, Swat, Buner, Dir, the Khyber, Kurram and Waziristan all became under British protection, although not, it should be said, under as close a control as in India. No, a more loose arrangement, whereby these places became tribal territories, supervised – not governed, you understand – by British agents who would become close to the tribes and wean them away from violence by a mixture of inducements and threat of punishment.’
    ‘Hmmm.’ Alice, predictably, was frowning. ‘It sounds as though the Amir of Afghanistan lost out in this.’
    ‘Not really. He was given a slice of land in the north, next to the Russian frontier. To be honest, the word is that he didn’t really want it because he knew that we were really looking for him to administer it as a kind of neutral buffer zone between us and the Ruskies. And he didn’t really lose much, except on paper, with the transfer of the Border tribal regions. The tribes didn’t really ever formally acknowledge their fealty to him, though they would always side with him against the British if it came to a fight.’
    ‘And Durand,’ asked Fonthill. ‘Who was he?’
    ‘Indian government’s foreign secretary at the time. He’s the chap, supposed to be on the spot, who didn’t think it through, damnit.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Well, d’yer see, in theory we extended our defences and area of influence into the Border territories. Pushed out the famous North-West Frontier, if yer like. But in practice, these territories are virtually ungovernable. The tribes won’t swear allegiance to anyone – well, they might swear it to get some rupees out of us,which they do, but they will never really toe the line.’
    ‘But, Colonel.’ Alice was frowning again. ‘Why should they? Just because they are not one conventional, integrally knit nation, why should they allow their lands to be carved up between two larger powers?’
    Fortescue smiled, not without pleasure. ‘Ah, dear lady, that is a perfectly logical and acceptable question you pose. And encapsulates, if I may say so, the Liberal Party’s position on this back home. I suppose the answer to it is our acceptance of some sort of lofty responsibility for trying to teach these undoubtedly warlike and, by our standards, immoral people – witness their quite unprovoked attacks on you this afternoon – a better way of life.’
    Alice drew in her breath to respond, but a warning frown and raised forefinger from Simon behind the colonel’s head made her keep her silence, allowing him to move in. ‘You mentioned, Colonel,’ he said, ‘the problems that came from not thinking this policy through. What has ensued, then, as a result of the establishment of the Line?’
    ‘For the first couple of years, nothing but trouble. Attacks all the way along the Frontier on the working parties putting in the damned poles. We had to send in three brigades to put down the Mahsud country. Then, far to the north, at Chitral, the political agent and a small force were penned in to the fort there for two months by armed tribesmen, while two army columns, from the east and south, had to fight their way through hugely difficult country to relieve them. As a result we had to establish a new garrison at the Malakand Pass, near here, and forts along the Khyber. We’ve got a new Pathan regiment, raised locally, like the Guides, to man ’em and keep the peace along the Pass. They’re called the Khyber Rifles.’
    Simon noticed that Alice was now discreetly scribbling notes on a pad on her lap. ‘What about these new political agents?’ he asked. ‘Were they effective?’
    ‘Yes and no. I believe that