I do not see that the facts I have stated diminish or increase the
probability of the Amir's complicity. As the American filibusters
sympathise with the Cuban insurgents; as the Jameson raiders supported
the outlanders of the Transvaal, so also the soldiers and tribesmen of
Afghanistan sympathised with and aided their countrymen and
coreligionists across the border. Probably the Afghan Colonial Office
would have been vindicated by any inquiry.
It is no disparagement but rather to the honour of men, that they should
be prepared to back with their lives causes which claim their sympathy.
It is indeed to such men that human advancement has been due. I do not
allude to this matter, to raise hostile feelings against the Afghan
tribesmen or their ruler, but only to explain the difficulties
encountered in the Mamund Valley by the 2nd Brigade of the Malakand
Field Force: to explain how it was that defenders of obscure villages
were numbered by thousands, and why the weapons of poverty-stricken
agriculturists were excellent Martini-Henry rifles.
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