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60 strengthening the Amír, was carefully weeded out of the published papers. A few words, a sentence, a whole string of sentences would be omitted, without leaving a single trace of the consequent gaps. Of the letter which Burnes wrote from Hasan Abdál on the Amír's behalf, not a word appeared in print. Some even of Lord Auckland's letters were treated in the same fashion. The twenty-four paragraphs of the despatch rebuking Burnes for unauthorized dealings with the Kandahár chiefs were melted down to three. Of Lord Auckland's letter of instructions to Macnaghten, nothing was left but the magniloquent passage in which he set forth his pacific yearnings and extolled the power of the British Government.

Regarded as a work of art, the Blue-Book was an undoubted success. The callidae juncturae had been done to perfection. As a justification of Lord Auckland's policy it baffled criticism for many years. To its moral shortcomings, however, no words of condemnation would be too strong. In a published volume of State papers nobody expects to find the whole truth about any political question. Diplomacy too often means duplicity. But in this instance official lying went beyond all conventional bounds. The dishonesty — to use Kaye's own words — 'by which lie upon lie is palmed upon the world, has not one redeeming feature ... The character of Dost Muhammad has been lied away; the character of Burnes has been lied away ... Both have been set forth as doing what they did not, and omitting to do what they did.'