1 324 THE KUKI KHAIL PEOPLE PUNISHED.
2 their stipends and allowance were requested to
3 be stopped.: Ranjeet Singh readily agreed to
4 the measure, otherwise it would have been
5 affording means to the enemy to fight his own
6 friends.*
7 * « Lieut.-Colonel Wade finding, from the rapacity of
8 Abdur Rahman Khan and his party, who occupied the
9 pass on the side of Peshawr, that it was difficult to come
10 to terms with them, and that, while seeking to open a
11 negotiation with him, he was sending agents to some of
12 the officers in the Sikh service, principally to stipulate for
13 the payment of the water supplied to the garrison of Fat-
14 tehghur, as well as with a view of intrigue, that officer
15 deemed it ‘proper to inform him, that if he could not
16 accept his terms with a certain time, his agents would be
17 directed to withdraw. At the same time he spoke to the
18 Maharaja’s officers, who were aware of his desire to gain
19 over Abdur Rahman, and stated to General Avitabile that
20 the treaty with the Shah having left the provision of the
21 water to the fortress, and the expenses attending it to
22 his Majesty’s Government, he would himself become
23 responsible for the future regulation of that point. Find-
24 ing that they could not carry on a separate negotiation
25 with the Khaibaris, without risking the success of those
26 which were confided to Lieut.-Colonel Wade, and that
27 his injunction was promptly supported by a similar one
28 from Ranjeet Singh himself, the officers then broke off
29 their communication with Abdur Rahman.”— ~ United Ser-
30 vice Magazine for 1842, p. 481. =