VACANT THRONE. LONDON QUAFREL.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 247, 18 October 1929, Page 7

VACANT THRONE.

LONDON QUAFREL.

! Flight Of Afghan Rebel King Confirmed. TRIBES TO CHOOSE RULER. (United Service.) DELHI, October 17. Wireless communication with Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, was resumed on Tuesday evening. Reports received confirm the capture of the city, and the surrender of Ark Fort after a heavy bombardment, also the flight of Bacha-i-Sakao, the rebel King. General Nadir Khan announces his intention of summoning a national (assembly of the tribes to choose their future King.

: MINISTER ASKED TO LEAVE. (AuitraJian Press Aasn.—United Service.) (Received 1.30 p.m.) BERLIN, October 17. Shuja-ed-Dowleh, formerly Afghan Minister to Britain, declares that during his absence from London, Yunus Khan, whom he appointed legation interpreter, telegraphed regularly to Bacha-i-Sakao. This was an act of treachery. Shuja on returning to London, possessed himself of a number of telegrams which Yunus exchanged with Kabul. One from Kabul asked the Foreign Office to help Yunus to protect Afghan property, including Lapis Lazuli and advised the Foreign Office that an Afghan mission was going from Kabul to Western Europe. Shuja asserts that the British Government turned him out without allowing him to clarify the situation. Yunu3 to-day replies that he did not communicate with Kabul while Amanullah was in Afghanistan. "When he left I had to reply to telegrams from the Kabul Foreign Office, but did not accept Bacha-i-Sakao as King. Kabul asked me to prevent Shuja from touching legation property," he said. "I warned the Kabul and London Foreign Offices that he was trying to sell the legation premises and furniture and to disappear from the country. I was desirous of protecting Afghanistan's interests and instituted proceedings .against Shuja. The majority of the telegrams he has quoted are false. I indignantly refused to help him to sell the legation property, thereby incensine him. He could not, in the face of my documentary evidence, reply to my charges. _ I was an official member of the _ legation before he was appointed Minister."

The former Afghan Minister in London, Shuja-ed-Dowleh Khan, in an interview in Berlin, on October 10, complained of his expulsion from the Afghan Legation in London. Shuja said that he flew to Paris with baggage, including eleven cases belonging to the former King Amanullah. Four cases which contained lazuli were dispatched via Harwich. They were confiscated at that port by order of the British Government. Armed officials from Scotland Yard took possession of the legation, and shots were fired. His servants were overpowered. At the Foreign Office it was announced that Shuja was informed that he was no longer persona grata. Later he was requested to leave London, that action being taken on personal grounds. It was understood that the ownership of the lazuli was the subject of legal proceedings.