dreams melted into air, 1919–29Afghanistan officially free and independent in its internal and external
affairs’. 20 Both sides were content with this compromise and on 8 August
1919 they signed the Rawalpindi Peace Agreement.
As far as Afghanistan was concerned, the losses outweighed the gains
for, as Grant pointed out to ‘Ali Ahmad, ‘war tears up all previous agree-
ments and treaties. You can claim no rights under the old treaties now and
we admit no obligation under them.’ 21 This meant the loss of the British
subsidy, forfeiture of the balance of subsidies held in Indian banks and
the repeal of the right to import arms. ’Aman Allah Khan also confirmed
his acceptance of the ‘Indo-Afghan Frontier as accepted by the late Amir’
and agreed to allow British surveyors being sent to demarcate a disputed
section of the Mohmand frontier, while Spin Baldak remained in British
hands until the demarcation was completed and signed off. The agreement
even included a statement blaming the war on ‘Afghan aggression’ and
concluded with the terse declaration that ‘this war has cancelled all previ-
ous Treaties’. The Rawalpindi Agreement was also defined as a personal
arrangement ‘because it was the Amir who made war on us’, rather than
with the state of Afghanistan, the issue of a state-to-state treaty being
deferred ‘if friendship negotiations materialise’.
The Afghan government had effectively capitulated and all they had
to show for their meeting was a letter addressed personally to the Amir,
which indirectly recognized the country’s independence. On his return to
Kabul, however, Loynab ‘Ali Ahmad Khan claimed Britain had given in
to all of Afghanistan’s demands. Government propaganda continued to
claim it had won the war and made much of the fact that Britain had tacitly
recognized Afghanistan’s independence. To commemorate this ‘victory’,
18 August was declared Afghan Independence Day, even though formal
recognition of Afghanistan’s independence by treaty did not take place
until 1922. So successful was the government in concealing the real terms
of the Rawalpindi Agreement that Amir ’Aman Allah Khan was hailed
as a hero by Muslims from India to the Middle East and some, including
the Hazrat of Shor Bazaar, even called for him to become the new Caliph.
The Rawalpindi Agreement marked another turning point in Anglo-
Afghan relations. Britain never forgave ’Aman Allah Khan for his invasion
of India and for the remainder of his reign British relations with the Amir
were marred by suspicion, hostility and a certain amount of diplomatic
petulance on both sides. The British government refused to refer to the
Amir as ‘Your Majesty’ in official correspondence and a letter from ’Aman
Allah Khan to King George v went unanswered. When the Afghan govern-
ment sought diplomatic relations with Italy, London pompously informed