IOR/L/PS/7/47 ff.695-702

Description

Scope and content : Despatch from the Government of India, Foreign Department (Frontier) to the Secretary, Political and Secret Department, India Office, dated Simla 2 July 1886, forwarding for the attention of the Secretary of State for India, Kabul Newsletters Nos. 47 and 48, dated 11 and 15 June 1886 respectively, written by Lieutenant-Colonel Ataulla Khan, British Agent at Kabul. No. 47 reports attendence at the Amir's durbar the preceding Wednesday, where he learned that the Amir was 'engaged in writing an account of his life and that he had written three pages to-day. The biography will consist of 16 chapters. The first chapter will treat of His Highness's own life; the second chapter of the condition of Afghanistan, and so on. It will take some time before the books is published.' Also that, according to the Naib Kotwal, 'the Amir's order was that the prostitutes of Kabul should dance all night in the bazaars of the city, throughout the month of Ramazan, to amuse the people, who have to keep up during the night.'No. 48 reports attendance at the Saturday durbar, where Ghulam Khan, the Commander-in-Chief reported the arrival in Kabul of 700 prisoners from Kulman, etc. The Amir ordered that they should be settled in Badakhshan. The Amir also threatened the Mangals with 'extirpation' if they failed to pay revenue owed or, alternatively, supply men for the army.