AFGHANISTAN.

Shannon News, 11 January 1929, Page 1

AFGHANISTAN.

AND THE NORTH WEST FRONTIER

This region is the mopt interesting part of the whole British Empire to the average man whose inclinations lie towards war and sport. The North West Frontier Province extends, roughly, from the tangle of mountains which form the hiorth-west'em end, of the Himalayas in the north, to the Persian Gulf in the south. It is composed chiefly of rugged, sare mountains and fairly fertile valleys, usually watered by small mountain streams and chiefly cultivated in,maize. ; '

The people, who are as different from the Indians whom one finds out here as chalk is from cheesej are usually about 6ft tall, sinewy, grey-eyed' and of fair complexion, showing undoubted descent fropi Alexander the. Great's Greeks and possibly the lost ten tribes —but, this question should be deft to the ethnologist rather than to the layman. d'hey are, in the rare intervals of tribal vendettas, extraordinarily keen, on sport and form the of some ten regiments of thfe Indian Army who value probably more than the battle honours they carry on thei.* colours the magical words Frontier Force (F.F.) In their own villages, which are always .fortified, and where, the boy of 10 years old is taught to shoot and shoot straight, they are intensely fanatical. Being Sunnites (a very strict Mussulman sect), they are easily, swayed by their' mullahs (priests), and for the last 90 years every small rising and at least six wars have been chiefly due to the mullahs’’ influence..

In the present 1 situation, the Amir, who is not really of the ruling caste (Durani), has overstepped, the bounds of even the'mott lax o'f Mohammedans. What this laxnessl may lead to in regard to the whole of, our Indian frontier, it is impossible to say. The Shinwaris in the Khaiber district and around Jellalabad have risen already, but if the other tribes—the Kukki Kheyls, Ali-Kheyls, Zakka-Kheyls, and the Mohmands —start to take a hand, there will be such a flare-up on the frontier that the Mahsud campaign of ( 1910i2^ r will--be'- a picnic- to the-nexfi" ‘‘Show.” ,

We have at present a force of only 30;000 troops on 1700 miles of front, not including irregular 'troops, which are unreliable, as the Khaiber Rifles showed themselves to be in 1919.

Apart from the military side,' very few people in the English-speaking world seem to realizp that the British Empire is also the greatest Mahcmme-; dan Empire the rvorld has ever seen, and that any trouble or perhaps, rather, unorthodoxy, which fends to disrupt the Mahommedan peace should be quiety but .very, very firmly sup : pressed by the Imperial Government.