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EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

children* There were eight Indian women on the staff,
with five children. The Legation had no wireless
instrument, either to receive or transmit messages, for
owing to some prejudice, the Afghan authorities had
objected to the proposal for such an instrument to be
in the possession of the foreign representatives. The
telegraph line was broken. Messages by hand were
uncertain and dangerous. And for several weeks there
had been no news of any sort from the British Minister.
. Even in November, early in the trouble, only two mails
had got through from Kabul.

There could be no possibility of sending help by road.
The religious fanaticism of the rebels had taken a
strange turn, and their venom was now directed against
every inanimate object in any way connected with the
King's Westernisation programme. The ruins of twenty-
six Italian lorries, gutted by fire, stood on the Peshawar-
Kabul road. Travellers were held up and robbed.
There could be no sense in risking even disguised
messengers on the route.

The Legation itself was in a dangerous situation. It
was in fact directly in the line of fire between the few
loyal Government troops and the artillery of the rebels,
and although there had as yet been no pitched battle
in Kabul, there was every likelihood of one beginning
very soon.

On the 18th of December, therefore, a lone British
scout circled over Kabul City and swooped lower near
the Legation, neatly dropping a package in the com-
pound. The pilot saw it hastily retrieved, and circled
again to await a reply. Figures ran out of the Legation
with white strips of paper and linen. These they placed
on the ground, marking a message. " All's well," it
read. "Fly high. Don't attempt to land."

At the same time it was officially and very tardily

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