AFGHAN TERROR

Opunake Times, 12 January 1934, Page 3

AFGHAN TERROR

ROYAL FAMILY’S ESCAPE A dramatic story of how flic women and children of the Aighan lloyal 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 woman formerly in the service of Shall Wall Khan, the murdered King’s brother, who was Afghan Minister in Paris.

__ “Vv hen the brig ind man-j ed on Kabul, and King Amanullah and his family lied, the women of the present lloyal House were left at tlie mercy of the conqueror,” she said.

“Their husbands and fathers were on service as Ministers overseas at the time, llabibullah thrust the women and children into a prison. It was foul and resembled the popular conception of the Black Hole of Calcutta. “One of the lale King’s daughters, a child in her early teens, died as a result of the prison treatment, but AVali Khan’s three children were rescued by the f|uick-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 bid the children. “From house hi house tliev went seeking different sanctuaries as the soldiers continued their search.

“Once there was no time In get them nut of the bouse, and as the searchers forced their way into the rooms the children were bidden in a box, where they remainfer some time.

“The voung Prince, sou of Shall Wall Khan, was so terrified bv ordeal that for long afterwards lie would not stay in a room with the door shut. On another occasion before they finally escaped, flie children were bidden in empty flour sacks.”