GREAT BRITAIN: Revolt

The rulers of Afghanistan have one of the world’s highest occupational mortality rates. In 20 years three kings have been assassinated and three have been forced hurriedly to abandon their thrones, while rival claimants and partisans have been frequently subjected to strangulation, stabbing, boiling in vegetable oil.

Most spectacular Afghan ruler was Reformer-King Amanullah, who got his throne after his father had been assassinated and his uncle ousted. Amanullah had bright ideas about westernizing his backward, picturesque kingdom, but unfortunately for him he also accepted millions of dollars in gifts from the British while playing ball with the Russians. In 1929 His Majesty, “out of patriotic and friendly feelings and of his own free will,” abdicated and hastily caught a plane for points west. Since then Afghanistan has changed its rulers three times. Present Afghan ruler is Amanullah’s cousin, 25-year-old Mohammed Zahir Shah. He got the crown after his father, Nadir Khan, was too seriously stabbed one evening when leaving his harem.

For the last ten years dynamic Amanullah has played about the Lido and the French Riviera, although at home he has never been completely forgotten. Last week from India there came belated confirmation that Amanullah was still a potent force on India’s Northwest Frontier. Two months ago, it was learned, 3,000 followers of Amanullah gathered in India, crossed the Afghan border near the Khyber Pass and started a march up to Kabul. King Mohammed Zahir Shah is accepted as a true-blue friend of the British, however, and when the British Raj in India threatened to come in and shoot them up, the rebellious tribesmen marched down again.