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EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

authorities at first combined with the Afghan Legation
in discouraging me from the project. cc Though Afghan
gates be open," they indicated, " and visitors are
welcome, that does not mean that the invitation includes
an interfering and probably critical journalist. . . ."

The Afghan Minister in India, indeed, put his thoughts
into words. In a letter refusing my application, he
intimated that though every facility was given for
information, the Afghan Government could not agree to
a journalist obtaining a visa, even though, on the advice
of a friend in Simla, I had stated that I was going for
" sight-seeing only."

That letter was his undoing. In print, it would look
strange. The threat of printing it in an Indian paper was
enough to have the visa duly stamped within a few days.
But the struggle had taken six weeks altogether.

It was the same at Peshawar. Having booked a seat
on the weekly mail lorry which roars up the Khyber and
over the Frontier, I was informed at the Customs Post
that my passport lacked one important visa still. At
Landi Kotal, headquarters of the Intelligence Staff of
the Khyber Pass, they regretted that a new order had
been made. It was to the effect that no Englishmen
could be allowed to cross into Afghanistan. There was,
it seemed, trouble in the air.

The order had been made at the last minute expressly
to stop my entry into Afghanistan. It was a decision
made in Simla, and telegraphed to Peshawar while I was
on the way. Its insistence seemed to make it all the
more essential that I go to Kabul immediately.

I went the next morning. An unsuspecting official,
just back from leave, had not received the new order.
He had the necessary stamp, and my passport soon had
the new hieroglyphics which ensured safe passage over
the Frontier.

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