All telegraphic communication between Candahar and the Viceroy has been
broken since eleven a.m. on Tuesday (27th), so that we really know nothing since that hour. The nearest force to General Primrose (who has in Brigadier-General Brooke a very able second) is General Phayre's, at Chaman, a hundred and twenty miles away on the Bolan Pass. He was to hurry up as soon as possible, and every effort is being made by the Government of India to reinforce him from Bom- bay. General Primrose says that his only anxiety as to halding the citadel of Candahar is a possible falling-short of water. Bat the fort is understood not to be a strong one, houses coming close up to it on one side, while a great plain stretches away on the other. The Khan of Khelat had placed all his resources at once at the disposal of the British, and we mast hope that the aid despatched by the Bolan will reach General Primrose in good time to save Candahar. Some anxiety is felt for Khelat-i-Ghilzai, which is at least another 120 miles away to the north-east, and where there is a small force of, we believe, about 1,100 troops. The Indian Govern- ment is fully alive, we believe, to the extreme danger of the emergency. But even if no further disaster befalls us, it looks very much as if we should have to do the whole work in Afghanistan over again. After this success of Ayoub's, the party of Yakoob Khan will hardly continue to acquiesce in the rule of Abdur Rahman.
