§ MR. KEAY (Elgin and Nairn)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether any engagement has been entered into by Her Majesty's Government, or by the Government of India, with the Ameer of Afghanistan, guaranteeing the integrity of his north-western frontier as delimited in accordance with the Protocol between Russia and this country of 10th September, 1885; and whether any farther undertaking has been added to that contained in a Letter delivered to the Ameer on 20th July, 1880, the terms of which were repeated to him by the Government of India on 22nd February and 16th June, 1883, whereby the British Government reserved to itself the right to be the sole judge as to the occasion, nature, and extent of any military aid which it might grant to him in repelling foreign invasion?
SIR J. GORSTThe engagements of the British Government with the present Ameer of Afghanistan will be found recorded at page 40 of the Return, Afghanistan No. 1, of 1881. They have not undergone any modification since that date.