The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1928. OUTLOOK IN AFGHANISTAN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18203, 2 March 1929, Page 8

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1928. OUTLOOK IN AFGHANISTAN

A few months ag'o, people asked. ] wliy Italians, Germans, Russians, 1 and Americans were thronging , Kabul booking- contracts for J building- railways, for providing , all Afghanistan with electricity, and for erecting factories when , British firms were getting- no , orders. Many put. this down to ; tlio incompetence of British busi- ; ness men or of the Foreign Office. Others guessed that Amanullah dared not let his people think he approved British economic penetration, and, therefore, was g-iving all tha contracts to other countries. Recent events in Afghanistan provoked the thought that perhaps the British Foreign Office and British engineering firms knew more about Afghan conditions than did tire Continental and American agents who hurried to Kabul. Contracts are all very well—in a land where the central authority can guarantee the life and limbs of the contractors’ representatives and can keep the land at peace till their work pays dividends. When the Emir Habibullah, King Amanullalr’s immediate predecessor, introduced telephones into Afghanistan and made bis Ministers of State play golf, the Afghan military commanders platted against him, murdered him, buried him on his own golf course outside Kabul, and set Amanullah on the throne, confident that their- nominee would not depart from the good old ways. Amanullah gave them their head, allowing them to make war against Britain on the Indian frontrer, and to fail completely. Then he, too, became a reformer. Amanullah did not play golf, recognising that pastime was- more dangerous for public men in Afghanistan than it had been even for M. Briand or Mr Lloyd George. But he carried reform further and faster than hig predecessor. He put down one rising, which waa instigated by conservative priests in the- Kandahar area. Then he went to Europe and carried out his programme, though when lie was in London there were rumours that he did not tr-ust his army. He went back in Afghanistan, the rebellion has duly come, and he lias not been able to- crush it as he did the earlier trouble near Kandahar. Amanullah paid no heed to the- Afghan philosopher who said that "‘you may change the face of Afghanistan, hut not the mind.” Friends of Amanullah warned the Afg-haa King- that the sweeping- he proposed could not' he instituted without inciting- fierce criticism and fanatical resistance. It may be the old story of a “die hard” minority opposing reforms supported by the progressive spirit within the country, but the reforms proposed were so sweeping in character as to make even the friends of Amanullah g-asp with astonishment. The reforms in the main, favoured;, or rather insisted on, by the King were: The abolition of the purdah, the woman’s veil; The abolition of polygamy; The sending of girls to be educated out of the country; Taxation for educational and public health purposes; and The Europeanisation of dress. The fanatical mullahs and their followers raised the strongest opposition to Amanullah’s reform and when the King persisted the revolt inspired by religious zealots swept the country like a prairie fire, and although Amanullah dramatically with- , drew the hated reform that the mullahs opposed because they were said to inn counter to ; immemorial traditions, he was very soon forced to abdicate. The authority of the mullah, was challenged by Amanullah and his Queen -who was regarded as the | first Afghan feminist in history, , and the fanatical leaders of a fierce warlike iieople sensing in the proposed reforms a menace to the traditional powers they held, quickly inspired the rival . tribes with a fiery patriotism . which has broken the power of ■ the new reformer, postponed the ' advance of Europanising influences, and for the time being at least, re-established the prestige and popularity of the mullahs upon an unassailable foundation.

TOO MUCH TALK

“The Minister of Public Works was voicing- his own personal opinion when he discussed the question of unemployment and land settlement at Auckland,” stated the Prime Minister in the course of a speech in Wellington earlier in the week. “He was not speaking for the Government. I want to remove that impression.” Sir Joseph also made an indirect reply to the Minister of-Public Works when he said: “We do not intend to tinker with any altering of our taxation system, but the time will come when the whole question of taxation will have to be gone into. It is not an easy matter. It is a very diffieult matterit is not one that can be discussed months ahead, and we can do nothing until the end of the financial year comes and we know just what the position of the country is. The public will learn of our intentions when the Financial Statement is delivered in the House of Representatives.” It is generally agreed that someone hud to offer an explanation, if the Prime Minister is to hold first place in a Cabinet which includes such a number of talkers. “The Evening Post.” discussing the mild rebuke Sir Joseph Ward administered to a Cabinet colleague, says that “when precept and practice have ,done their work, and tho new

Ministers have enlarged their experience, adventurous essays into the field of experimental politics will lie fewer and less calling for either censorship or censure. But it would be a pity to see any team of Ministers go-to the opposite extreme and become as lip-locked as were some members of the late Cabinet.” Our Wellington contemporary goes on to ask: “Was anyone at all helped when the Ministerial extinguisher enveloped Mr Rolleston?” The question has often been asked by people in this district, but as “The Evening Post” says “politicians, once impressed with the cares of office, tend to fall into two divisions—those who understand that language was given to conceal thought, and those that have no thought to conceal. To put limits on the former may be a party necessity, but does not contribute to the brightness of the world at large. The latter class does not matter, and its reign in the land is generally prolonged.” Doubtless we may make -excuses for a Ministerial team so new to office, but pnce the newness has worn off the job, the country expects Sir Joseph Ward’s Cabinet colleagues to cease paying- compliments to themselves and their fellow Ministers, and put their promises into iierformance. The pronouncement by the Prime Minister which we publish this morning, however, that the Government is opposed to the centralisation of shipping, will he received with relief and satisfaction by all the districts interested in minor ports throughout New Zealand.