AN EMIR'S LOYALTY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 2

AN EMIR'S LOYALTY.

A TRAGEDY OF nJHE WAR. -—■ v HABIBULLAH OF AFGHANISTAN. (From Our Own Coheespondbnt.) LONDON, January fli. . Sir Hamilton Grant, who negotiated the Peace Treaty with Afghanistan in, 1919, addressed the Royal Empire Society after one of their monthly dinners this week. He paid a remarkable tribute'to the Oriental sense of loyalty. On. the entry of Turkey into the war, Great. Britain was ’ naturally concerned about the attitude of Afghanistan. Had the latter country declared against usj its immediate neighbour, India, instead of being an asset providing thousands of troops and supplies, would have become a ” ’ ” : ty; The Emir Habibullah of Afghanistan, however, promised neutrality, and maintained it to the end. The result was, Sir Hamilton pointed out, that the Emir was murdered a short time after the Armistice, “a martyr to his own good faith to Us.” When war broke out, said Sir Hamil- , ton, the Emir secretly sent in the dead of night for our Mohammedan Agent at Kabul, and asked him to communicate the following mesage to the Government of India; S 6 long as the independence of my country is not threatened, I mean, if I possibly can, to keep my country neutral, but the Government of India must not Judge me by anything I sav or do; my position is very difficult.” * LORD HARDINGE’S FAITH. “This message,”. Sir Hamilton continued, “was viewed in the Viceroy’s Council in various ways. Some thought .that the Emir was throwing dust in our eyes, and meant to break with us when it suited him. Others were for accepting. the Emir’s statement on its face value. “lam happy to say that Lord Hardinge accepted the latter view, and even when, some days later, the Ero’r asked to be sent the arrears of his subsidy amounting to about £250,000 in gold, it was agreed not only to meet his wishes but to increase his subsidy in view of the expenses involved. The story of the Emir’s difficulties is a romantic history by itself."