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+text From Calcutta
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| type = article
| type = article
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| continues = 112
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| author = Blavatsky, H. P.
| author = Blavatsky, H. P.
| notes = Title in Russian: “Изъ Калькутты”.
| notes = Title in Russian: “Изъ Калькутты”.
| language = Russian
| language = Russian
| translator =
| translator = Baziukin, V. V.
| categories =
| categories =
}}
}}
...
<center>From our correspondent.</center>
{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|6-112}}
{{Style P-Align right|February 4}}
While speaking about Spain and the means to conquer it, Henry IV is said to have put it this way, “Make an invasion of her with a large army, and you will all die of starvation; advance on her with a small one, and you will be overcome by the masses of the population hostile to you.” These historical words of the great king of France were quoted as a late reflection by Sir Henry Durand in his criticism of the first invasion of Afghanistan. They could have served as a good warning for the second invasion as well, a few months ago. But although the above words were commented on, and much was discussed about them, the warning, however, has proved futile. “Everything about this expedition,” says Durand of the first attack, “was questionable, even down to the most important of all issues, provisions for the troops: Afghanistan well deserved the reputation that Spain once had in the eyes of Henry IV.”
Despite the “gloss” deftly put by the official ''Pioneer'' newspaper, despite the thick pieces of plaster with which it so generously fills up the cracks discovered daily by the public in this hitherto impregnable wall of Anglo-Indian politics, the building is cracking and constantly threatening destruction. Woe to her, the arrogant conqueror, if the masses of India ever wake up from their age-old lethargy! It will be all up with her, as soon as the beast senses that the hand holding it so tightly begins to weaken and that at least one link from the chain that firmly fastened it has already crackled!..
In view of the unexpected and decisive resistance from the enemy in Afghanistan, she cannot, for the time being, even to dream of an offensive. According to eyewitnesses, every step of the army in Afghanistan at this time of the year is fraught with such difficulties that no other country can give the slightest idea. Terrible cold and snowstorms; valleys and mountains covered with deep snow; roads pitted everywhere with potholes and even failures, flooded immediately with the freezing water of countless waterfalls; fields intersected in all directions by deep ditches and groves and separated from one another by high strong walls. All around, over a space of many miles, excellent natural shelters stretch almost continuously and in all directions, thus enabling enemy skirmishers to disturb any army, especially if it is burdened, as at present, with carts and a long tail of idle Indians and Kizilbashis<ref> Kizilbashis or Kyzylbashis were an alliance of the Azerbaijani-speaking Turkoman nomadic tribes. — Ed.</ref>, looking for salvation in its rear. They will have to take every village, the slightest fortress or wall by storm, since the mountain gun is completely “powerless” against the Afghan wattle-and-daub walls. Such tactics will require new reinforcements in a very short time, because in hand-to-hand combat, where the superiority of weapons and military tactics is completely worthless, the Afghans are in no way inferior to the British in strength or courage, while in some respects, — being, unlike British soldiers, fresh and not exhausted by hardships — even surpass the English. The tactic of ever-increasing reinforcements has already been tried and failed, like everything else.
{{Style P-Quote|“I don’t think,” says the Calcutta newspaper, ''l’enfant terrible'' of English-language journalism, ''Amrita Bazaar Patrika'' (January 30), speaking about these difficulties, “that after our army has fallen into a trap more than once, surrounded by 30,000 Afghans, the government would express the slightest desire to repeat the experience. To be able to successfully face off against such an enemy, we certainly need great forces; it is in this danger that the specter of starvation appears before us. The Khyber transport is not strong enough to be relied upon to bring provisions from Peshawar; in all likelihood they will have to share the requisitions in the country, forcing it to sell us its far-hidden reserves by force — a task easier to solve in words than in deeds. But the main difficulty will be that, as we move forward, we will have to lay our lines of communication further and further; this will create a new need to have not only a large number of mobile battalions strong enough to guard the convoy, but also to have regiments in reserve in the theater of operations itself in order to successfully disperse the Kabul detachments.”}}
The great need for a stronger escort and means of transportation was demonstrated last December, when a handful of predators attacked the transport, robbed it clean and carried away, among other booty, ''145 bales of warm clothing for soldiers'', sewn by Allahabad and other ladies with their own hands, and sent by them as a gift to the troops. The ladies, it seems, have not taken comfort to this day: the mere thought that their patriotic concern, at this very moment, covers the grease-smeared bodies of dirty Afghans drives them to furious despair.
But even retreat is fraught with great danger. The slightest movement back will immediately set all the Afghan population against them, not to mention the loss of “English prestige” in the East. Perhaps, according to the dispatch of General Roberts, the soldiers are “all on fire to punish the enemy,” but their heat, apparently, is destined to smolder for a long time, and then — who knows? — it might cool down altogether. And Roberts could not hide the fact that, meanwhile, they, one by one, even “freeze” under the breath of frost, smallpox, cholera and other oriental delights. No “Russian spies” are necessary to see this, for it is enough to read London newspapers like ''Vanity Fair'' and others. Should they decide to retreat, the Afghans will disturb them to the very gates of Peshawar and continue to rob and kill every lagging soldier, as they had done more than once with complete impunity under the very walls of Sherpur, or before that in 1842. In those days, the victorious army, full of enthusiasm after the successful sack of Kabul, was returning to India with all the charm of a conqueror. And yet, due to the relentless persecution of the Kabulis, who attacked them from the rear and almost tortured them to death, the poor English soldiers, according to the unanimous testimony of the historians of this sad first expedition, “looked more like a battered partisan detachment than a victorious army” after returning home.
But there is a third thing for the British — staying trapped in their camps, doing nothing and waiting for spring, when, according to the Calcutta correspondent of the ''Times'' (who is well known to us as one of the “wise men”), the militant fervor of the Afghans will cool down, “and the time will come for revenge and reprisals.” Only, according to all local newspapers, except the ''Pioneer'', this last choice is the most dangerous of all three. I will cite the highlights of the most important publications:
{{Style P-Quote|“It has now been positively proven that camp life during this winter time gives rise to the most terrible diseases and has already caused a severe mortality among the troops. Moreover, this idle life gives every chance for successful uprisings, as was the case during the recent rebellion. Once the troops are allowed to sink into a state of long inactivity, their mullahs will immediately begin to preach ''jihad''; and then not a single soldier, not to mention ordinary Afghans, will dare to refuse to take up arms to exterminate the army of the hated ''feringhees''.<ref>Or ''farangis''. In India and other parts of Asia, a foreigner, especially one with white skin (Persian Firingī, Farangī, from Arabic Farenji, Ifranji, modification of Middle French Franc, Frank) — Ed.</ref> That will be a hand-to-hand fight to the death; it is precisely in this possibility that the main danger for the British lies.” Then, “the view of troops plunged into inactivity with pitched tents in the very heart of their country alone will be enough to arouse in them the most infernal feelings of revenge, and throw themselves at once into the arms of the Russians.”<ref>''Amrita Bazar Patrika'', January 29. — ''R.B.''</ref>}}
Besides, no one {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|6-112}}