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EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

destruction were the paragon. But more and more as
the news of the War reached his ears, he was intent
upon showing to the world that Afghanistan could not
be regarded as the pathetic little " buffer-state"
towards which the Great Powers could show a benevolent
tolerance.

This period was the last of any length during which
Amanullah was to have the leisure for his further educa-
tion. He made the best use of it. In particular he studied
the policy of his father. He knew already, to his disgust,
the vacillation and intrigue which distinguished Habi-
bullah's foreign policy. He was already disappointed
in the stand which, on the surface, the old man was
taking towards the Powers whose representatives daily
sought his favours.

Amanullah was too young then to understand the
Eastern policy of sitting on the fence. An hereditary
quality in Eastern lands, somehow it seemed to have
been left out of his constitution. Impatience ruled him.
He was a man of action. He counted display and
braggadocio as a strong feature in the life of a nation.
He loved to read of the finery and chivalry of the old
Persian armies. Diplomacy, he thought scornfully,
played a small part in their lives. They were fighting
men.

Old history absorbed him. He read that the Afghans
may be the Lost Tribes of Israel. He read of Afghana,
who helped his father build the Temple at Jerusalem,
Legend had it that when misfortune befell the children
of Israel beside the Nile, Afghana trekked with his sons
to the hills of Ghoor, and thence far north to the shadow
of the Hindu Kush. He read yet another theory that
held Mahomed responsible for summoning the chief of
the refugees to hold the faith of Islam in Asia against
the growing forces of infidelity.

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