EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

face of resignation, the face of the man who had been
King in spite of himself.

The cars drove down the dusty uneven road and
stopped at the Frontier barrier. There was a happy
smile on the face of the young Afghan Prince who had
talked to me about the Cherwell. He dreamed of the
spires of Oxford. He was going back to the land of
uncertainty and chaos. The little party walked across
the Frontier, and to another group of cars awaiting
them.

The women were bundled in. One of the children was
crying. One of the party waved a hand. It was a fare-
well to the old regime.

Then the cars started for Kandahar, without a cheer
and without a sign of excitement.

The promised row was a good one while it lasted. It
kept various Government departments busy on the tele-
phone for a while, and entertained the anti-British news-
papers hugely. One of them, an old enemy of mine,
suggested plaintively that the Government had favoured
a British journalist to the exclusion of his Indian
brethren. We denied that.

Then it suggested that I had travelled in the lavatory
of the train for two nights and a day. We denied
that.

It excelled itself by saying that I had swung for two
nights and a day in a net slung underneath one of the
carriages. We denied that.

Then Government, also slightly hysterical owing to
the allegations of favouritism, issued a communiqu6* In
it was expressed the sorrow and shame of the Indian
Government that " Mr. Wild had behaved in a manner
unbefitting that of a gentleman.5'

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