The Press Tuesday, March 13, 1928. King Amanullah.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19258, 13 March 1928, Page 8

The Press Tuesday, March 13, 1928. King Amanullah.

It would be easy to wax cynical about the magnificence of the reception prepared for the King of Afghanistan and his Queen on their arrival in London this week. But it would not be very wise. The visit is of such enormous importance internationally that it would be sheer stupidity to mock at even the most obviously "arranged" piece of pageantry if it is going to be remembered with gratitude by the King or any of his subjects. It would indeed be quite proper, quite advisable, quite necessary and dignified to please King Amanullah if he were a mere child mentally and politically, or even a transplanted tyrant whose word is law in his own territory. But as it happens King Amanullah is neither a child nor a tyrant, neither a dullard nor a decorative figure-head'. He is a ruler of marked ability politically, and of pronounced courage, shrewdness, and determination personally. Though he is not yet very old he has come through an eight years' struggle with obstinate and reactionary Mullahs who, as a correspondent points out in The Times, " regard new fashions, except in rifles, "with intolerant indignation." He has had to contend with the suspicions lof an ignorant and backward people who have obstructed all his attempts, which be has none the less pushed ahead, to introduce technical experts and advisers from Europe. He has had to meet rebellions, all of which he has crushed with outstanding courage and firmness, and he has of course had to deal with all kinds of delicate and difficult situations forced on him by the outside world. It is, in fact, a quite astonishing feat in state-craft that he has been able to meet all these difficulties and still set out on one of the longest Royal tours ever undertaken by any king in history. In his farewell speech at Kabul early in December he made it clear, not only that he understood the importance of his journey, but that he was determined to extract all the good from it that it could be made to yield. Afghanistan, he said, could not remain stationary. It must join the " social and living nations of " the age," and so he was going away to find out which of the customs and manners of Europe could be adopted with benefit by his own people. We know that he has already been making close enquiry into manufacturing processes and the methods of economic organisation in France and Germany, and it is in these material and • technical matters especially that his journey may be expected to have its first results. But the result of most significance to our own Empire is an abiding friendship with King George and bis people, and nothing that will help to bring this about can be extravagant or unnecessary.