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EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

with their friends, and discuss the children. The
engineers would come for relaxation after the strain of
doing nothing all day. The European officers would
stroll there and conduct hasty but violent overtures of
affection with the synthetically beautiful nursemaids.
It was a strange, unnatural place.

In one corner there had already sprouted the first
few feet of the walls of a " super-cinema." It was to
be the only one in Afghanistan, but its dimensions, its
incredible ugliness, and its shining roof would surely
entitle it to the title of " super.'9 It reared an ugly
trunk as the symbol of the ugliness of the West. Aman-
ullah was very proud of the idea.

The roads were lined with young poplar trees, which
would later screen travellers from the rays of the sun.
Paghman was a haven for those who had grown up in
the artificial parks of the West.

Even more ambitious, however, were the plans for
the construction of a capital to replace Kabul. This
was to be called Darulaman, after the King, and was
to form a centre for the various Government depart-
ments which already threatened to overflow their
accommodation.

Great circular blocks of offices were to be built.
Central courtyards would give entrance to ranges of
departments. Clerks would be housed in luxury and
modernity. Superior officers of the State would work
in conditions suitable to the fame of the capital of a
new nation. There would be communal lodging-houses
for the employees of the State. There would be imposing
gardens and wide, sweeping drives. Darulaman would
be the wonder of the East, its conception brought about
by the combined brains of every nation in the world
except Great Britain.

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