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AMANULLAH

schools existing on the pay-roll which were in fact
products of the imagination. They received an annual
grant from the Government for their maintenance, and
the most fanciful figures were prepared showing the
daily attendance of the scholars, their names and ages,
their progress, and their baek-slidings. On paper, it
would appear that the rural population of Afghanistan
was being dragged out of the slough of ignorance.
In actual fact one or two influential oiliciuls of the
Education Ministry were drawing fat allowances from
the Government grants paid for the upkeep of these
non-existent scholars, so seriously pictured as studying
the three r's in every village in the hills.

Amanullah could not be expected to find out every
detail of the mass bribery system that affected the
whole State like a canker growth. He was resisting
nature. Every benevolent law made for the improve-
ment of his people gave further chances for the corrupt.
On paper, they thrived. On paper, there was beginning
the greatest emancipation movement ever staged in the
East. On paper, there were the figures and the details,
showing hundreds and thousands of little children
bending their heads over the Persian copy-books day
after day. In actual fact the country people were being
fleeced of high taxes for the support of cunning old
rascals in Kabul who revelled in the invention of new
details to enrich their pockets.

The new Amir was not always deceived. When he
put his finger on a definite case of corruption, punishment
was swift and severe. He instituted the death penalty
as the automatic punishment for an offence against the
State, Even that threat did not persuade the artful
deceivers into abandoning the lucrative practice.

One story shows the amazing lengths to which these
parasites would go to retain their positions of trust,

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