afghanistanin Afghanistan was dropped and Britain committed itself to provide the
Amir military aid in the event of unprovoked aggression by another nation
and to pay him an annual subsidy. These were very similar to the terms
Sher ‘Ali Khan had asked for at Umballa and Simla, and had the British
government agreed to these terms then, there would have been no invasion
of Afghanistan and both Britain and Afghanistan would have avoided the
expense of going to war.
After two days of discussions, ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan agreed to the
terms and a few days later he arrived in Kabul to oversee the handover of
power. Sherpur, the Bala Hisar and other positions were evacuated and
thirty field guns, part of Sher ‘Ali Khan’s artillery park, were handed over,
along with the contents of the Kabul treasury and a gift of ten lakh rupees.
Roberts then paid the Jabbar Khel and the Ghilzai of Tezin a similar sum
for safe passage and the troop withdrew safely with hardly a shot fired in
anger. The Amir used the British cash to secure the loyalty of key indi-
viduals, in particular Ghulam Haidar Khan Charkhi, whom he appointed
as his commander-in-chief. Griffin had also been patiently negotiating
with Mushk-i ‘Alam for several weeks and, shortly after ‘Abd al-Rahman
Khan entered Kabul, two of the pir’s sons came and pledged their father’s
allegiance to the new Amir. In return, Mushk-i ‘Alam’s eldest son became
Head of Religious Affairs.
The only problem now facing the British army of occupation was the
relief of Kandahar. Roberts was given charge of this task and secured safe
passage through the Logar and Ghazni with the help of ‘Abd al-Rahman
Khan, Ghulam Haidar Khan and Mushk-i ‘Alam, meeting with only token
resistance. Since the situation was critical, Roberts’s troops marched twice
the usual daily distance and covered more than 500 kilometres (310 mi.) in
23 days, a remarkable achievement in the era before motorized transport. A
second brigade commanded by Major General Pharye marched out from
Sibbi in Baluchistan but it had to fight almost all the way to Kandahar.
Roberts’s force, however, proved more than enough. On 1 September 1880
‘Ayub Khan’s army was destroyed at Baba Wali, near Old Kandahar, and
the siege of Kandahar was lifted. Gladstone’s government was therefore
able to portray the withdrawal from Afghanistan as an orderly handover
of power instead of a defeat or retreat.
The relief of Kandahar transformed Roberts into one of Britain’s
most feted military heroes. Both Houses of Parliament passed a vote of
thanks, Queen Victoria wrote him a personal letter of congratulation and
a baronetcy followed soon after. Roberts abandoned his plan to resign
from the army and in 1885 he became commander-in-chief of the India