§ SIR JOHN KENNAWAY (Devon, Honiton)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India (1) whether Her Majesty's Government has received confirmation of a statement made in several Indian newspapers, to the effect that, according to an announcement by the Afghan Commander-in-Chief, military operations will be resumed by the Afghans against the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush in the first week of March; (2) whether the extirpation or enslavement of the Kafir race was contemplated as a possible contingency when the transfer to Afghanistan of the whole of the Kafir country up to Chitral was made under the Durand Agreement, as stated in the recently published Chitral Blue Book; and, if so, what steps are being taken to save the people from such a fate; and (3) whether the text of the Durand Agreement or Treaty will be laid before the House of Commons?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON, Middlesex,) Ealing(1) Her Majesty's Government has received no confirmation of the report that military operations will be resumed against the Kafirs in March. The latest report is that operations were practically ended on January 24, troops withdrawn and most hostages released. (2) The main object of the Durand Agreement—the text of which I shall be glad to lay on the Table of the House—was to fix the limits of the respective spheres of influence of the two Governments, and thus put an end to the difficulties arising from the want of such a delimitation. According to the 235 latest reports received from the Government of India, no question of "the extirpation or enslavement of the Kafir race" has arisen; and certainly no such contingency was contemplated at the time the arrangement was arrived at.