The Ameer of Afghanistan.

Hastings Standard, Issue 284, 30 March 1897, Page 4

The Ameer of Afghanistan.

Abdur Rahman is generally regarded by Englishmen as the father of his people. His justice is summary and severe enough. He has been guilty of atrocities beside which those of Abdul the Damned are set light; but that curious lack of moral perspective so characteristic of Englishmen in the mass has led to the condonation in Afghanistan of what cannot be sufficiently denounced in Armenia. Let me give an example. A few years ago the Lataband Pass was infested with Afghan highway robbers. As the pass is comparatively near Cabul, this was particularly exasperating to the Ameer. Ordinary punishments—that is, hanging after a few preliminaries were unavailing ; and he resolved to make an example of the next man caught. An iron cage was fixed to a mast on the top of a precipitous cliff. Into this the robber was thrust, and left to die of hunger and thirst. Now the wayfarer sees high above his head the skeleton in the cage—a grim warning to him to keep the paths of rectitude. Nor is this the limit of Abdut- Rahman's cruelty. The crime of robbery is very severely punished in Afghanistan. The hand of the criminal is amputated in a rough and ready manner. The local butcher is called in. lie knots a rope tightly just above the wrist of the criminal, and with a short, sharp knife severs the hand at the joint, plunging the raw stump into boiling oil. No dap of skin has been made to cover the end of the bone, and the skin has been scalded for two inches or more by the oil, so that it is mouths before the stump heals by cicatrisation. Once a human priest suggested to th«.' Ameer that operations of the kind should be performed properly by a doctor. Abdur Rahman negatived the suggestion With a €*vrc reprimand, if these stem un irt-. were exercised merely in the imm » of law and order one migh ivu them. The Afghans are a turbulent race. They need thi- ,-tron_' hand, and cannot be povern. d hv the democrat ie and parliamentary Uut what i-hal! U» ©aid of the man who !!.<"• thi* ilf»putic power. practi-«.*a th> mithiv-'. for t;lr mvn |>er-on.il to til t.!- CiOT- ■ ( ' rtam it i* tli.it whi-ii'-.t-r an Afghan U-etiiu.-, i\'>t;c«*ably rK-ii of T?va->i>n ur i iher'M-t Irnvwi-l hn::, involving d-. V-h !»: I f.»rf» "f pf ll petty,or, at the leck-t. such a no*shall ruin him,—St, J&mfee' Gfwettti.