REBELS CAPTURE FORTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 542, 20 December 1928, Page 1

REBELS CAPTURE FORTS

Vantage Point Over Kabul BRITISH AIRPLANE FIRED ON Fate of Crew Not Known (United I*. A.—Bp Telegraph—Copyright > (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) K«cd. 11.35 a.m. DELHI, Wednesday. IT is reported that the Afghan rebels have seized two forts overlooking Kabul, with large quantities of arms aiid ammunition, and are awaiting reinforcements for a big assault.

A British Air Force airplane which attempted to establish communication with the British Legation, with a view probably to arranging for the evacuation of the British and Indian women and children, was damaged by shots from the rebels and forced to land near the city. The fate of the pilot an,d observer is not known. The situation is full of anxiety for the Indian Government from the viewpoint of the effect of a fanatical Afghan civil war on the North-west Frontier, AFGHAN TEA-PARTIES WHERE THE KING ERRED WAYS TOO WESTERN King Amanullah, of Afghanistan, whose attempts to Westernise his fierce tribesmen have ended in a revolt. and the killing of 400 subjects and the wounding of 300 more, decreed that every inhabitant of Kabul must wear European dress, including a hat, while walking or riding on the main roads. . , Failure to obey was to be punished with fines. . . , Headmen attending the triennial

parliament found frock coats and felt hats replacing robes and the Koran-ordained turban. Beards were ordered off, and there was the spectacle, at a royal garden party, of fierce men of the Himalayan hills’sitting gingerly on benches, balancing teacups on their trousered laps. Amanullah appeared at this gathering in morning coat and top hat, and shook hands. Other reforms the King brought back from his sightseeing tour of Europe were monogamy, and the raising of the marriageable age of girls to 18, and for boys to 20. Afghans are being sent to England to learn to fly, constitutional Government appears in place of despotism, and Feminism show's signs of break - ing down the traditional Eastern dominance of the male.