ANOTHER AFGHAN WAR ?

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 110, 12 May 1919, Page 6

ANOTHER AFGHAN WAR ?

If the new Amir of Afghanistan is declaring war against the British foreigner in order to secure. peace at home, he is adopting a risky expedient, but nevertheless one which has had notable exponents in the ranks of modern rulers of civilised nations. ' The causes of the Afghan . trouble are probably political and local, but may also have a Mohammedan and wide-spreading basis. The latter aspect would be a very serious one for-Mohammedan Empires like those administered by Britain and Prance in Asia and Africa; and it is safe to say that the outbreaks in Egypt, India, and Afghanistan are important not so much in themselves as in the degree of their connection with each other, if such connection exists. Detached, sporadic disturbances aro bad enough, but they would be still mor-o formidable if they represented the foam-crests of a Mo* hataSfdßn- wave. IV the p»aßS»t» how-

over, the balance of evidence is that tho Amir is playing a hand of his own. The degree of his resistance will be the degroo of support ho finds among his own people and among the border tribes; and the latter are probably wise enough to see that an Afghan -war against Britain, arriving after the armistice, has arrived somewhat late. Owing to .wardevelopment of death-dealing apparatus, Britain has now a greater technical adva&tage over fighters like the Afghans; and that fact, also, has possibly-not escaped the attention of the border tribes.