Norwich bulletin., 1919-05-15
IN THE DAYS NEWS
AFGHANiSTAN.

The reported assassina ton of Habi- bullah, amir of Afghanistan, is re- hinder that not even that remote and obscure land Of middle Asia escaped the effects of the world war" says a bulletin of the National Geographic Society.
 Not that there is any evidence as yet that the n1onarchs murder was inspired by growing antipathy to auto crate, but the collapse of Russia. left Afghanistan free from an influence embarrassment.
 'Habibullah is credited with observ- ing scrupulosly the policy laid down by his father. a noteworthy ruler, that of consulting England about matters of foreign policy but brooking no in- reference from the outside in the do- nestle affairs of his absolute mon- archy. ...
 "Habibullah's father it was who made travel compara lively safe among the heterogeneous tribes of Afghani- stan-trihes which formerly bounced upon each other at the slightest pro- vocation. Frequently they submitted their disputes to arbitration and the custom of the loser. awarding several of it's marriageable women to the rival tribe was one factor in eliminating any clear out distinctions between the tribal units of the land.
 ITO the stranger the Afghan displays a sort of spacious and deceptive orien- tai courtesy. In fact a national pro- verb is that The man who shuts his door to a stranger is lso Afghan But the stranger also would do well to know saying current among the Hin dsos. God shield you from vengeance of the elephant. the copra and the | Afghan For many strangers have found that. upon prevo cation. to which the Afghan is extremely sensitive, his 1 disposition is vengeful, cruel, and crafty His desire fol pillage, theft and deception also iJ apt to get the 1 best of him.
 gering, proud. but withal prepossess- l ing sort of man, every inch the war rior while he keeps his turban on. but l giving faint suggestion of a bewigged 1 jurist of old English days when he re- moves it to disclose a head shaved from forehead to crown, with cruly ringlets falling about his shoulder from i the unshaved' portions.
 l Occasionally the men are fair. as
 are most of the women, whose hair 1 in two plaits with colored .tasseis al l the end, ot nceivably might call to mind an American musical comedy l 5, were it not for their flowing orienta.
 robes.
 Afghan women, like Turkish wo- men, are kept secluded but they are ! considerably more adventurous thar their Turkish sisters, hence scanda is not infrequent even in a land where
 a man may have as many wives af he can support. Amir Habibullah, i report of his death be true, left foul
 widows.
 By Habibullah's father, Abdur Rah
 man, also were enacted measures oi
 national defense singularly in keep.
 ing with occidental schemes for con,
 scription. He made the boast that h, could throw a hndured thousand mel
 into action in a week to defend one O his provinces, and said his entire do
 main could raise million fighting
 men to defend her soIl. Nor did h.
 stop at the prediction. He worked ou
 8 system by which each man in ever. eight would alternate in taking mili
 tary instruction. One mad to be yer.
 young, or very decrepit. to escape tn amir's draft. for the service ages wer
 from Is to 70.
 50 far as barring private intuition , makers is concerned, Abdur Rahmar , long before his death, in 1901. migh have subscribed to the proposed leagu of nations, for he had his own factor
 ies at his capital, Kabul. There ar
 said to have been produced a dozen 0 more rifles and thousands of cart ridges day, and several guns a week ; But neighboring states never ha
 much fear of any pan-Afghan aspira
 tions on the part of the kabul wa lord. The arms were most varied an , picturesque and the cartridges ar said to have been excellent save tha :. they seldom fitted many. of the rifles Though he may know not effieinec
 the Afghan is a first class fightin
 man as the British learned in the tw f Afghan wars."<I was at the close c l the second. in~1S79, that Gen. Roberts Qater Earl Roberts,. made his fanlou march to 'Kanhahar to reinforce Ger