ct their
religion, feelings, and customs, while exacting full retribution
from offenders. Every effort will, therefore, be made to prevent
the innocent suffering with the guilty, but it is necessary that
the utmost precaution should be taken against useless opposition.

'After receipt of this Proclamation, therefore, all persons found
armed in or about Kabul will be treated as enemies of the British
Government; and, further, it must be distinctly understood that,
if the entry of the British force is resisted, I cannot hold
myself responsible for any accidental injury which may be done to
the persons or property of even well-disposed people, who may have
neglected this warning.'

At the same time, the matter having been brought to my notice by Lord
Lytton, and bearing in my mind that my father had told me one of
the chief causes of the outbreak in Kabul in 1841 was the Afghans'
jealousy of their women, and resentment at the European soldiers'
intimacy with them, I thought it well to impress upon all the
necessity for caution in this respect by publishing the following
Order:

'Sir Frederick Roberts desires General officers, and officers
commanding corps, to impress upon all officers under their command
the necessity for constant vigilance in preventing irregularities
likely to arouse the personal jealousies of the people of Kabul,
who are, of all races, most susceptible as regards their women.

'The deep-seated animosity of the Afghans towards the English has
been mainly ascribed to indiscretions committed during the first
occupation of Kabul, and the Major-General trusts that the same
excellent discipline so long exhibited by the troops under his
command will remove the prejudices of past years, and cause the
British name to be as highly respected in Afghanistan as it is
throughout the civilized world.[3]

On the 30th September (my forty-seventh birthday), all arrangements
which it was possible for me to make having been completed, the
Cavalry brigade marched eight miles to Zargunshahr, the first
halting-place on the way to Kabul. I accompanied it, for I was
informed that Wali Mahomed Khan and the Sirdars had arrived so far,
and I could not let them come on to my camp so long as the Amir was
still in it. I wished, also, to interview the Logar _maliks_ and
ascertain whether I could procure supplies from their valley. There