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Agreement between Amir
Abdur Rahman Khan, G. C. S. I., and Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, K. C.
I. E., C. S. I.
Whereas certain questions have arisen
regarding the frontier of Afghanistan on the side of India, and
whereas both His Highness the Amir and the Government of India are
desirous of settling these questions by friendly understanding, and of
fixing the limit of their respective spheres of influence, so that for
the future there may be no difference of opinion on the subject
between the allied Governments, it is hereby agreed as follows:
- The eastern and southern frontier of his
Highness’s dominions, from Wakhan to the Persian border, shall
follow the line shown in the map attached to this agreement.
- The Government of India will at no time
exercise interference in the territories lying beyond this line on
the side of Afghanistan, and His Highness the Amir will at no time
exercise interference in the territories lying beyond this line on
the side of India.
- The British Government thus agrees to His
Highness the Amir retaining Asmar and the valley above it, as far
as Chanak. His Highness agrees, on the other hand, that he will at
no time exercise interference in Swat, Bajaur, or Chitral,
including the Arnawai or Bashgal valley. The British Government
also agrees to leave to His Highness the Birmal tract as shown in
the detailed map already given to his Highness, who relinquishes
his claim to the rest of the Waziri country and Dawar. His
Highness also relinquishes his claim to Chageh.
- The frontier line will hereafter be laid
down in detail and demarcated, wherever this may be practicable
and desirable, by joint British and Afghan commissioners, whose
object will be to arrive by mutual understanding at a boundary
which shall adhere with the greatest possible exactness to the
line shown in the map attached to this agreement, having due
regard to the existing local rights of villages adjoining the
frontier.
- With reference to the question of Chaman,
the Amir withdraws his objection to the new British cantonment and
concedes to the British Governmeni the rights purchased by him in
the Sirkai Tilerai water. At this part of the frontier the line
will be drawn as follows:
From the crest of the Khwaja Amran range near the Psha Kotal,
which remains in British territory, the line will run in such a
direction as to leave Murgha Chaman and the Sharobo spring to
Afghanistan, and to pass half-way between the New Chaman Fort and
the Afghan outpost known locally as Lashkar Dand. The line will
then pass half-way between the railway station and the hill known
as the Mian Baldak, and, turning south-wards, will rejoin the
Khwaja Amran range, leaving the Gwasha Post in British territory,
and the road to Shorawak to the west and south of Gwasha in
Afghanistan. The British Government will not exercise any
interference within half a mile of the road.
- The above articles of' agreement are
regarded by the Government of India and His Highness the Amir of
Afghanistan as a full and satisfactory settlement of all the
principal differences of opinion which have arisen between them in
regard to the frontier; and both the Government of India and His
Highness the Amir undertake that any differences of detail, such
as those which will have to be considered hereafter by the
officers appointed to demarcate the boundary line, shall be
settled in a friendly spirit, so as to remove for the future as
far as possible all causes of doubt and misunderstanding between
the two Governments.
- Being fully satisfied of His Highness’s
goodwill to the British Government, and wishing to see Afghanistan
independent and strong, the Government of India will raise no
objection to the purchase and import by His Highness of munitions
of war, and they will themselves grant him some help in this
respect. Further, in order to mark their sense of the friendly
spirit in which His Highness the Amir has entered into these
negotiations, the Government of India undertake to increase by the
sum of six lakhs of rupees a year the subsidy of twelve lakhs now
granted to His Highness.
H. M. Durand,
Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.
Kabul, November 12, 1893.
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