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AMANULLAH

content with a comfortable backwater. He is driven
still by that very ambition which pressed him formerly
into danger. His dreams give him no rest. His mind
works still at the old problems, appraises anew the old
schemes. He would go baek to Afghanistan if he were
given the glimmer of a hope that his people would suffer
him,

He has been to Turkey on holiday from exile. During
his regime of folly, the Turks held high authority in
Kabul. In the uniforms of Army commanders, of civil
overlords, and Government advisers, they were put in
enviable positions in the ruling classes. Their military
reputation went to Kabul before them, and for some
time many of the Afghan recruits received their first
education in military affairs from tarbushed and over-
bearing Turkish oflicers with the Afghan crest on their
shoulder badges.

Sometimes they got into trouble. Even at the height
of his power, Amanullah was unable to prevent one of
his most favoured commanders from being tried by the
civil authorities for a parade-ground attack on a recruit.
The evidence was to the effect that the ofiicer had in-
sulted and cruelly treated the Afghan. The defence was
that by no strategy or explanation could the recruit be
persuaded to keep his feet together while standing at
attention t The highly efficient Turkish oflicers found
their military prowess and patience highly taxed when
it came to teaching discipline to young Afghanistan.

But Amanullah's name stood high in Constantinople,
The Crescent knows no boundaries of country or colour,
and the warrior Afghans were well esteemed among the
military classes of Turkey.

At one time there must have been Turkish dreams of
a powerful and strategically situated ally to the north
of India, and it is natural that hopes rose higher when

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