EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

LHianullah was touring, and in the intervals of hunting
,nd trekking into the furthermost parts of his domain,
srould combine business with pleasure by paying
urprise visits to the local schools which existed so
yravely on the official reports.

This inconvenient probing into the villages, and the
nesting of the written reports, had to call for the cleverest
counter-move by those who were responsible for the
nation-wide graft. But there was money to spare if
be could be deceived a little longer. And there is a
supposedly true instance of how he was preceded on
one of his tours by a small cavalcade of young Afghan
scholars, who appeared in numerous villages as local
products, busy with their noses to the textbooks, while
a staff of schoolmasters were kept ready to take on the
task of appearing as local shepherds of the flock.

Often enough the class would only be arranged just
in time for the arrival of the Amir. The schoolmaster
would be flurried and nervous. The children would be
arranged in a new order, lest the keen-eyed and
enthusiastic Amir might recognise a u local " devotee
of learning whom he had noticed some hundreds of
miles away, engaged in a similar task.

But the ruse worked for a time. The tour was
concluded without Amanullah learning of the trick*
He had satisfied himself as to the genuineness of at
least some of the Education Ministry's reports. And
the danger was over for the rich officials,

Such a story, whatever its foundation of truth, would
seem to match well the cynicism of the Afghan, his love
of intrigue, and his fondness for that richest of all jokes,
a successful trick on authority.

It was the same with the new Customs laws and the
contracts for the Army. According to Amanullah's
estimate^ the Customs duties should be bringing into

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