§ SIR HENRY TYLERasked the Secretary of State for India, To be good enough to state to the House in general terms the total amount of assistance—in money, guns, military stores, or otherwise,—that has been afforded, out of British and Indian resources, up to the present time, to Abdurrahman, Ameer of Cabul; and, whether it is intended, now that his army has been so completely defeated in the neighbourhood of Candahar, to afford the Ameer any further assistance of the same description, or to employ Anglo-Indian forces in Afghanistan?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON, in reply, said, he had no objection to repeat the information which he gave to the House on the 27th of June. The money given to the Ameer was 39½ lakhs of rupees, which included 9½ lakhs found in the Treasury at Cabul in October, 1879. A further sum of 50,000 364 rupees a month was paid to the Ameer as Governor of Candahar for six months after the evacuation. In addition to this, war materials had on various occasions been given to the Ameer—first, four 18-pounder smooth-bore guns, two 8-inch howitzers, 12 9-pounder breech-loading field guns, and 22 mountain guns, all of Afghan manufacture, and forming part of the war material taken from the Afghans at Cabul. They were given to Abdurrahman on our evacuation of Cabul. We also gave him, in March, 1881, 100 cartridges per gun for 9,182 muskets and rifles already in the Ameer's possession, and 3,000 Enfield rifles, and. three smooth-bore batteries of 18 guns, were given to the representatives of the Ameer on the evacuation of Candahar by the British troops in April last. As far as the last part of the Question was concerned, he had no reason to believe that the Government of India had any intention to afford to the Ameer any further assistance of the same description, nor had he any reason to suppose that there was any intention—at all events, no proposition had been made by the Government of India to the Home Government—to employ an Anglo-Indian force in Afghanistan.