St Petersburg International Conference of Afghan Studies

30 Санкт-Петербургская международная конференция по афганистике Секция 1. Историография и источниковедение Афганистана... must have been under an enormous physical and mental stress. He was replaced by Colonel Joseph West Ridgeway as British Chief Commissioner. On November 12, 1885, Ridgeway met his Russian counterpart, Paul von Kuhlberg, at Zulfikar where the work of the ABC began. Afghan territory, foreign interests Even before the British-Russian protocol was signed on September 10, 1885, Afghanistan’s ruler, Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, had been invited to send anAfghan representative Qazi Saaduddin Khan, to join the commission’s work. This Afghan observed the Anglo-Russian demarcation process and informed the Amir in Kabul regularly. Although the Amir later complained that leading British representatives had accepted a Russian fait accompli at Panjdeh, at the time of the incident he clearly indicated to the British Viceroy of India (during a meeting at Rawalpindi) that he saw no better alternative to a peaceful Russian-British settlement; and the expenses to protect this area would by far exceed an income from taxes. His later criticism was tactically motivated and intended to get an increase of British subsidies. In October 1887 Sir Joseph West Ridgeway analysed the geopolitical result as follows: “The demarcation of the frontier puts it in the power of Russia to force a war upon us at any time. Granted. But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that Russia will not violate the frontier until she is ready to enter into war — certainly not in Central Asia only, but war all over the world. (…) In other words, war in Europe may be the cause of the violation of the Afghan frontier, but the violation of the Afghan frontier will not be the cause of war in Europe.” Fig. 2. The position of the boundary pillars 1 to 12 in the area of Zulfikar