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EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

The girls came back, the foreign officers left Kabul,
the guns rusted and rotted in neglect, the motor cars
in the Royal garages developed premature old age.
Ram Prasad, my old friend, had been found one morning
with a neat slit in his throat. There were no more
European hats in Kabul. The band no longer played the
National Anthem, and the gardens of Paghman went
to seed. The first railway in Afghanistan never
carried a railway train. The dream city never throbbed
to the movement of traffic. The old traders came back
to their haunts in Kabul City. Kabul was finished with
the frivolities of life. In a little while there was not a
trace of the old regime. The as-you-were movement
had been completed.

The mullahs were well pleased. They were given to
understand that in return for their continued support
of the new Amir, they would be allowed to regain all
their old prestige. The old polygamy laws were re-
instated, and the old game of graft came back, though
in this disorderly world there seemed less opportunity
for the astute officials to levy their petty fines on the
public.

Strangely enough, it seemed that the whole country,
save a group surrounding the immediate neighbourhood
of Kandahar, was loyal to Bacha Sachao. The tribes-
men of the south no doubt felt that in future they would
be free to arrange their own affairs, and would incident-
ally suffer no more from the interference of police and
State troops when they decided to make sudden attack
on rich caravan or wealthy Hindu traveller. They had
got what they wanted.

A small and compact Council of State was appointed,
and without bothering their heads with such trivial
details as sanitation or police, it was decided what
should be done with malingerers and consistent evil-

Q 241