<^^C^C^t^td^t^t<^^<^C^<^C^ AMANULLAII Subtly and secretly, they fed the silent resentment of the country people against the poliey which was making hay of past history and traditions. There was a sullen feeling in the ranks of the Army. There was a nation-wide presentiment that these moves aclutilly undermined the power and position of the nation, Amanullah had made his first false step. He either turned a blind eye to the portents of trouble or he deliberately belli tied them. He was already sur- rounded by a court of flatterers, equal in their in- sincerity and guile to aiiy group which had clustered like vultures round the Palace of his forefathers. Spurred by their cynical enthusiasms,, he decided on a bold policy. It is remembered that he had already reduced the Treasury to a parlous state, lie had not yet set his house in order even to the extent of ridding the State services of the evil of bribery. Chaos was everywhere, save in those small departments which he ruled personally and with dynamic energy* Yet even in face of these dangers he set his face boldly towards an even more rapid policy of modernisation and so-called u reform." Very soon Kabul streets were filled with more and more foreigners. Turks overlorded it in the Army. They held the senior posts, and graduated automatically into positions of trust and responsibility. They were un- popular, but they leavened the indiscipline of the Army, now denied the inspired leadership of the King, with their smartness, their born military genius, and their parade-ground tactics of conducting themselves* They bullied their men into a submission which was foreign to them. They were neither, admired nor liked, but generally feared. There were minor rebellions, but the ferocity with which they were put down, and Aman- 80