<<^<<^<^C<^C^t^ts^C<^^^ EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN Amanullah responded to their approval by engaging a considerable cadre of Turkish officers for work on Kabul parade grounds. The reason for Amanullah's visit to Constantinople, therefore, can be understood. He must have travelled there with an ear ready for the slightest hint that he would be supported if he returned to his own country. He must have ached for the mere whisper of the approval that he desired. Such is his ambition, he must have already visualised himself returning, perhaps even at the head of Turkish troops. But no word came. Even his flatterers were not foolish enough to let their minds rest on such a project. Often enough he has reminded himself that his country is closed to him for always. But every time the hope returns. So we leave him, broken and dispirited, a prey to ever-recurring torments that are more wounding than the pangs of remorse. We leave him in the unromantic surroundings of suburbia, in ignominy and modesty. We leave him, however, still the man of action, still young, still afire with energy and the vital but dangerous flames of ambition. Day after day his thoughts cross the water, leave the pampered boundaries of Western civilisation, cross burn- ing plains and the high hills ; pass through the ordered and awesome last barriers of the British Army in India; come eventually to the shaded groves of Jallalabad, to the wide sweep of the Pamirs, to crowded, rambling Kabul City. To the throne. . .. To Nadir Shah, King in his stead, staid and states- manly gentleman of culture with steel spectacles and an orthodox and confidence-inspiring black beard. His thoughts rove round the new kingdom, Ponder 283