AMANULLAH’S TROUBLES.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 February 1929, Page 8

AMANULLAH’S TROUBLES.

“If King Amanullaii ever had any idea that the patii of relonn wliicn in: had planned for Afghanistan was going to be a tranquil one, he lias been quickly disillusioned,” says the “Manchester Guardian.” “The young men of Kabul may be content to be Europeanised and to wear top-iiats, collars and ties, but the young men of the frontier are not, and they Imv.e speedily shown their view of the royal reforms by organising a full-dress rebellion against the central power. In their mountains, which form an almost impregnable refuge, they stiil remain as stubbornly uncivilised and as formidable as were their ancestors who gave such trouble to Alexander the Great. To their Hereditary fighting qualities they have added Mosiem fanaticism and it as devotees of the true faith and the old ways that they oppose their King. To subdue them even with the modern armaments which Amanullaii lias at his disposal will not be easy, and it may be that for some time Afghanistan will be the scene of a long and savage civil war. ■But the frontiersmen light is losing battle. They figlit for a cause already ms!, and whatever inital successes they may gain, in the end they will meet the same defeat as their fellow-con-servatives in Turkey and in Persia. Amanullaii they may hold at hay, but they cannot for long stay the course of history.”