As to the measures to be taken effectually to coerce them, Oliver, writing twenty-two years ago, said that “strong as are the natural positions they hold among the spurs and defiles of the Safed Koh and the bare, rugged, inhospitable ranges of the Khyber; difficult of approach the passes which might have to be forced, and unanimous as the clans may be to defend them at the signal of a common danger, the people are so dependent on the plains, their position—secure though it may sound—is really their weakest point, and makes it easy to shut them up in their own hills. Peshawar, the great field for their plundering operations, is also the market for their produce and the source of supply for their many domestic wants. Exclusion from Peshawar is to many clans a severe form of punishment; and an effectual blockade that will cut them off from the outer world, would probably bring them to terms sooner than an expedition.” But Holdich again reminds us that “across those wild break-neck passes over the Safed Koh into Ningrahar ... the hard-pressed Afridi can constantly find refuge for his family, and sanctuary for himself, amongst the Durani tribes who dwell on the northern slopes of the Safed Koh.” That there is always that back door, “the keys of which are in their own pockets,” and that “at the worst they could shift across the hills into Afghanistan, and there was the prospect ... that something more than mere shelter would be accorded by the ruler of Kabul.” [Sidenote: Their Character]