570 Hon. G. N. Curzon [May 10, 



second Afghan War. The Balar Hissar, or fort in which the British 

 Residency was situated, and in which Sir Louis Cavagnari perished, 

 has been completely dismantled ; scarcely a stone stands one upon 

 another ; only a few bullet-riddled walls remain to revive the melan- 

 choly tale, and the whole is a scene of pitiful desolation. The walls 

 on the Sher Darwaza and Asmai heights are rapidly falling to ruin, 

 and only on the tops of the hills are the forts, which were erected by 

 Lord Roberts, preserved as arsenals or magazines. The city of Kabul 

 is one of the least interesting and the most squalid of the Eastern cities 

 that I have seen. Its situation marks it out as the natural capital 

 of Afghanistan, but it has in it neither external nor interior evidences 

 of grandeur. The public buildings are few and mean. There is the 

 tomb of the Emperor Baber, whose favourite residence was at Kabul, 

 and who died here, which had fallen into complete ruin before it was 

 patched up by the present Amir. There is the brick mausoleum of 

 Timur Shah, the son and successor of Ahmed Shah, which is in a 

 scarcely less lamentable state of decay. The buildings of the native 

 town are of mud, the streets are narrow and dirty, and the bazaars 

 have no beauty. Nevertheless a large population, estimated at 150,000, 

 is congregated within the walls. Whatever of mark or distinction 

 there is in the city it owes to the present Amir. He would like, 

 had he the time and opportunity, to rebuild it on a different and a 

 healthier site. In the meantime, he has removed his official quarters 

 and his residence outside the precincts of the old native town. 



The Ark or Palace is situated on the north of the city, between it 

 and the Sherpur cantonment, where Lord Roberts was besieged, and 

 is a large quadrilateral structure, with a parapet, big projecting 

 bastions at the corners and centres of the sides, surrounded by a 

 broad moat. The Amir does not, as a rule, reside here himself, but 

 within it are the Treasury and the Armoury, as well as the Harem 

 Serai, where the ladies reside. The Amir moves about from one to 

 another of the various country residences that he has built on favour- 

 able spots in the neighbourhood. It was in the garden of Baber that 

 he nearly died last October, and at the time of my visit he was 

 residing in the Bostan Serai, a European-looking villa, which he has 

 built immediately outside the Palace enclosure. 



Before I pass to an account of my interviews with the Amir I 

 may give you some idea of the manner of man he is, at any rate in 

 respect of enlightenment and breadth of view, by pursuing the subject 

 of the changes which Kabul has experienced under his rule. You 

 have all of you probably heard of the workshops and the English 

 employes, and the miniature railway and the European establishments 

 of the Afghan capital. These have been the growth exclusively of 

 the last ten years, and have been due to the initiative of the Amir, 

 assisted by Sir Salter Pyne, the enterprising and capable Englishman 

 who has personally supervised the introduction of these improvements, 

 and who has done so much to familiarise the Afghans with the 

 mechanical implements and inventions of the West, 



