AFGHAN TERROR

Evening Star, Issue 21620, 16 January 1934, Page 5

AFGHAN TERROR

ROYAL FAMILY'S ESCAPE A dramatic story of how the women and children of the Afghan:Royal Family escaped when the brigand Habibullah captured Kabul in 1929 was told to a ‘ Daily Mail ’ reporter by Nurse Ada E. Chappell, a New Zealand women, formerly, in the service of Shah Wali Khan, the murdered king’s brother, who was Afghan Minister in Paris. _ “ When the brigand marched on Kabul and King' Amanullah and his wife and family, fled, the women of the present Royal House were left at the mercy of the conqueror,” she said. “ Their husbands and fathers were on service as Ministers overseas at. the time. Habibullah thrust the women and children into a prison. It was foul and resembled the popular conception of the Black Hole of Calcutta. ,

“ Among those in the* prison were the wife and daughter of Nadir Shah and the wife of Shah Wali Khan,- who is a sister of ex-King Amanullah. “ One of the date king’s daughters, a child in her early ’teens, died as a result of the prison treatment , but-Wali Khan’s three children were rescued by the quick-wittedness of their respective nurses.

“Soldiers came in search of them, and as they came in by one door the nurses slipped out at the back and mingled with the crowd of poor people whose clothing hid the children. “ From house, to house they, went, seeking different sanctuaries as the soldiers continued their search.;

“ Once there was no time to get them out of the house, and as the searchers forced their way into the rooms the children were hidden in ; a-box, where they remained for some time. “ The young prince, son of, Shah Wali Khan, was so terrified by his ordeal thatfor long afterwards he'would not stay in a room with the door shut. On another occasion before they finally escaped, the children were hidden "in empty flour sacks.”