LONDON, Jan 2: British diplomats in the 1950s secretly discussed dividing up Afghanistan between Pakistan and Russia, according to official files made public for the first time on Wednesday.

There were concerns then, which have a familiar ring given the events of last year, that the country might have been about to slide into chaos and anarchy.

In June 1951, a senior diplomat, R.H. Scott, wrote to the British ambassador in Kabul, John Gardener, pointing out that the French were already suggesting that the “obvious solution” to the problems of the region was to “engineer” a partition.

“If there is to be an upheaval sometime, as looks not unlikely, the ultimate disappearance of Afghanistan (as we now know it) might be no tragedy. In modern conditions Afghan viability may in the long run be doubtful,” he wrote.

However, the papers released to the Public Record Office show that Gardener cautioned against direct military intervention, warning that an invading army could be tied down for years fighting a guerrilla war.

With Cold War tensions mounting, British diplomats in the early 1950s were becoming increasingly concerned that a weakened Afghanistan could no longer provide an effective “buffer” between an expansionist Soviet Union and the sub-continent.

Officials in the Foreign Office began floating the idea that the best solution to guarantee security in the region was to divide the country between Russia and Pakistan.—AFP