Feb, 20, neighbour the gigantic shadow of Russia. "It was fear, little brother, it was fear" that clouded the intellect of our envoys. Like a mammoth amelia the empire of the Tsar spread east. It reached the sea on. the east but would fain have' touched warm water. Afghanistan was the key to India and we wished to control Afghanistan as the first step in the defence of our Eastern Empire. To-day that menace is gone. We are content that the frontier we have is defensible and have no desire Away on the North-West frontier of India is an inconspicuous gateway through which twice every week pours motley caravan of camels, bullocks and donkeys carrying the merchandise of Turkestan and the further north to the bazaars of India, This is the entrance to the far. famed Khyber pass. Through this portal, in. ancient days, came the silk of China so much prized by the Greeks and Romans and known to them as seres. Through that slit in the hills have ever come the fierce nomads of the north to plunder the fertile plains of Hindustan and to be transformed, in the course of generations, by the enervating heat of the humid south, into timid traders who, in their turn, became the spoil of their untamed cousins from the barren north, Through this gateway came the terrible Baber with his conquering horde of Mongols, in 1519, to found the Empire of the Great Mogul, the most gorgeous of India's numerous dynasties. In 1841 the British Political Agent was hacked to pieces by an Afghan mob in Kabul. The army of occupation was besieged in its cantonment for sixty-five days... "Betrayed by specious' promises of supplies and safe-conduct for their return trek to India, they marched out and commenced the most dreadful retreat recorded in history. Encumbered by women and children the army stumbled through the ice-bound Khyber pass, harassed at every step by fanatical tribesmen, One solitary horseman, Dr. Brydon, emerged from this fateful gateway, the solitary survivor of an army of 16,500. men, The anabasis of Xenophon's 10,000 was a summer Gay's picnic in comparison with this grim tragedy. It is some satisfaction that the defeat was retrieved and the women and children delivered from the hands of their captors by General Pollock ere many months had, passed. In 1879 the tragedy of 1841 was repeated. Sir Louis Cavagnari and his staff were annihilated in Kabul and another Jat all to interfere in Afghan affairs. The revolutions of the moon, too, have brought changes in the Amir's land. Elementary education is free and. compulsory; higher education is free if not' compulsory and this revolutionary change in the nation's habits carries within itself the potency of many other changes. There are judges and law courts. but most. quarrels fare settled locally by the heads of the clans. This is the essence of a democracy that will grow and develop with use and the Afghan. may, in days to come, be as free as the Swiss and Jequally welcome as a neighbour.
Not many months ago King Amanullah accompanied by the Queen, the Princesses and a considerable suite the historic Khyt was welcomed with royal honours on his entry into British India. Like. another Haroun al Raschi he wants to look on the modern world with his own eyes.. The peaceful nature of his missier is evidenced by the fact that he carries the treasures of his harem with him. And that he means to look on the West-with open and nubia: made abundantly d Queen and her daughters a ed on the deck of the steamer without their veils and Parisian gowns. Already they have dined with the King of Egypt and lunched with Mustapha Kemal Pasha. They have been feted in Italy and welcomed in Paris and before long are to the guests of our own King and Queen. King Amanullah's father was assassinated in 1919 jand his uncle for a short time usurped the throne. It speaks well for his statesmanship that in so short a period he is able to Teave the country on a world tour without fear that anything untoward will happen in his absence. The royal party will receive the warmest welcome from the British people. May their coming be but the beginning of long years of happy and peaceful intercourse. war had to be fought before our relations with Afghanistan were once more on a satisfactory footing.
Afghanistan is a small and unproductive state. Its area is about 700 by 600 miles and it has a population of 8,000,000. Its people claim descent from Saul, king of Israel, and have a Jewish cast of countenance, but their speech has no relation to the Hebrew tongue, They are, in fact, Aryans with a strong dash of the Mongol in their composition. Gibbon, in "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," gives them a bad character and a later writer says, "Nothing could be finer than their physique or worse than their morale." No one ever questioned their courage. The bloodstained record of our intercourse with them proves that we have nothing to be proud of in the history of our diplomatic relations with their country. The reason for our failure is plain enough. In all. our dealings, with Afghanistan there loomed over the shouldet'of our frontier
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.