Pyne for the visit of the Durand Mission, the Amir’s envoy stipulating for an unescorted civil mission. [Illustration: ABDUR RAHMAN’S PALACE AT JELALABAD] At this time questions in dispute with Afghanistan were not alone occupied with the vexed areas in occupation by the independent tribes along the north-western frontier of India. The Russians had raised again the Agreement of 1873, by which the northern boundary of Afghanistan was defined by the course of the Oxus, and were pressing for its literal fulfilment. Since the conflict at Pendjeh and the Boundary Commission of 1884-87, Russia had turned her attention to the Pamirs where, hitherto, China and Afghanistan had been solely concerned. Fort Pamir, a frontier post, had been erected by Captain Yonoff on the Sarez Pamir in 1891; the brutal massacre of sixteen Afghan soldiers under Shams-ud-Din Khan by the same officer had occurred at Somatash on the Alichur Pamir, June 22, 1892; and in the month before the arrival of the Durand Mission there had been a further Russo-Afghan encounter on the Badakshan border. These disorders were, perhaps, inseparable from a situation in which the rights of the case were so violently opposed to the policy, interests and intentions of Russia. Insistence upon the justice of the Afghan claim without supporting force would have been futile. The Amir’s invitation therefore offered opportunity for settling not only the very serious problem of the tribes on the north-western frontier of India, but, equally, the question of jurisdiction on the Pamirs. The Durand Mission left Peshawar on September 19, 1893, accompanied by _Envoy._ _Political Assistants._ _Medical._ _Military._ Mr. Mortimer Captain MacMahon. Major Fenn. Colonel Ellis. Durand. Captain Manners Smith. Mr. Clarke. Mr. Donald. The usual honours were paid upon arrival in Kabul. The Mission was met by General Ghulam Haidar Khan, lodged in the Indikki Palace, the residence of Habib Ullah Khan, and presented with a _ziafat_ of 33,895 Kabuli rupees. After preliminary conferences, in pursuance of instructions from Lord Lansdowne, Mr. Mortimer Durand on November 11, 1893, addressed to Abdur Rahman the following letter: