AMANULLAH

for preference to be given to the neighbours on the
north, the Russians.

The result was to kindle in his heart a determination
that Afghanistan should forge for herself a future inde-
pendent of the favours of others. The soldier was
speaking. The Afghan, bred in the tradition of heroic
self-reliance, was forming his future to the exclusion of
the diplomat.

But he did not obtrude his views against the stern and
strong silence of his father* Habibullah went his own
way, scheming and plotting. He gave nothing away,
and he was as much a mystery to his courtiers as he was
to the delegates of all the Powers who had suddenly
seemed to realise how great a prize was the friendship of
this wild, strategical " buffer " state in the East,

" Afghanistan for the Afghans ! " The words of the
old mullahs came back to him with the emphasis of a
phrase learnt in childhood. He, at any rate, would not
pander to the conceits of others. There was all the more
reason, because of the international flattery at the Court,
to ensure the discipline of the Army. He dreamed of
guns, aeroplanes, convoys of motor transport wheeling
across the great parade grounds. He saw in his ambitious
imagination the armies of the Afghan nation, no longer
split into factions, but united as they had never been
united before.

He saw the hillmen massing on the plains, not in the
irregular, guerrilla bands of other days, but in a compact,
mobile force. He saw himself as head of a great fighting
nation, with the history of many campaigns in their
blood, but strengthened with the improvements of
modern warfare.

The world could teach Afghanistan. These men who
came from over " the Black Water," with their motor
cars and their modern machines, could be used without

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