EVERY-DAY LIFE IN AFGHANISTAN 



89 



Photograph courtesy Air Commodore E. E. O. Charlton 



AX AIRPLANE VIEW OE THE AMIR'S PAEACE AT KABUL: AFGHANISTAN 



The Amir has neither airplanes nor radio stations in his military establishment, but he 

 knows a flying-machine when he sees it, for the British flew up from India during the 

 Anglo-Afghan "unpleasantness" in 19 19 and dropped a few persuasive bombs in the vicinity 

 of the citv. 



sion and classic aloofness ■ of the pious 

 lamas at Lhasa. Amir Amanullah Khan, 

 through his agents in India and else- 

 where, is in close touch with the world's 

 current events ; and, as the last remain- 

 ing independent ruler of a Moslem coun- 

 try, now that the power of the Caliph 

 at Stamboul is broken, he wields a far- 

 reaching influence throughout the Mo- 

 hammedan world ; also, because his land 

 happens to lie just as it does on the map 

 of the world, it is plain that for a long 

 time to come he will be an active force 

 in the political destinies of middle Asia. 

 Like Menelik of Abyssinia, Queen Lil of 

 the Hawaiian Islands, or the last of the 

 Fiji kings, this Amir, remote and obscure 

 as his kingdom is, stands out in his time 

 as a picturesque world figure. 



The Amir's word, his veriest whim, is 



law to his millions of subjects. He is, in 

 truth, the last of the despots, a sort of 

 modern Oriental patriarch on a grand 

 scale. His judgments are, of course, 

 based primarily on the Koran, or on the 

 common law of the land ; for there is no 

 statute book, no penal code, and no court. 



HIS WORD MEANS LIEE OR DEATH 



To keep the wires of politics, of mili- 

 tary and economic control, in his own 

 hands, the Amir vests subordinate au- 

 thority only in his relatives and close 

 friends ; and woe betide the incautious 

 underling who dares think for himself 

 or act contrary to the Amir's wishes : for 

 in this primitive, secluded region there 

 still survive many unique and startling 

 methods of "rendering a culprit innocu- 

 ous." 



