AFGHANISTAN 73

Every military expedition of consequence which has
been directed against India, with Peshawur as the first
objective and Lahore and Delhi as the ultimate aim
of invasion, has been, so far as history can tell us,
directed either from Kabul or Ghazni; and it may be
safely assumed that no comprehensive scheme for the
conquest of India by land invasion could possibly overlook
 the lessons contained in the past records and leave
this line unoccupied or unguarded. The position of
Kabul in the geography of Afghanistan assures its continuance
 as a great ‘centre of Asiatic trade quite as

Aeshav

° Kohat

an Mile

+

Fi1G. 24.—The Khaibar Route to Kabul,

much as it defines a point of strategic value ; so that of
all the many routes which cross our frontier and lead
from High Asia to the plains of the Indian continent that
which connects Kabul with the ancient Afghan city of
Peshawur (now our chief military outpost on the northwest)
 is by far the most important. A natural inference
to draw from a look at the map of Afghanistan would be
that the Kabul River valley would itself offer the best
possible line along which to direct a ‘great trade or
military road between Kabul and Peshawur, but the Kabul
River valley forms a remarkable exception to a general
rule. Of the 170 miles of military road which separates
the two cities, about zo only follow the Kabul stream,