A REFORMER IN FLIGHT.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17611, 16 January 1929, Page 6

A REFORMER IN FLIGHT.

King Amanullah, the Afghan monarch, has abandoned his throne, and is stated to he in flight and in personal danger. His scheme of reform has had to he abandoned, and, according to the cable messages, his country is doomed to recede further into the depths from which he sought to lift it. The King and his Queen some time ago set out from his capital on a tour of Europe. He felt that Afghanistan was .in the backwater, and he desired to see for himself the conditions obtaining in the West. He visited Turkey and noted the reformation Kemal Pasha has wrought there. Thence he proceeded to Europe. He was feted and entertained, and every effort was made in alt countries visited to give him an insight into Western methods and customs. Amanullah was impressed; he realised that Afghanistan was really in the backwash, and that it was up to him to institute reforms and to arouse his countrymen to a desire for better things. He took Kemal Pasha as his model. He recognised that Turkey, being ostensibly Mohammedan, had more in common with Afghanistan than any other country visited. He evidently argued that methods that were successful in Turkey must prove so in Afghanistan, and when he returned to Kabul, fired with the desire for reform, he followed Kemal’s tactics, and sought by edict and order to change the ancient manners and customs ol the country in a few weeks. But he overlooked one or two important facts. He failed to remember that Turkey and its people had been in more intimate association with Europe than was possible for the Afghans. Contact with Europe and Europeans had undermined the foundations of the Islamic religion, and Turkey had reached an impasse when it must either progress or go back. Kemal seized his opportunity, and determined that the old order must go, and the new be established. Turkey was ripe and ready for chang«e. Hence Kcmal’s success. In Afghanistan conditions were different. The old faith still had a firm hold there; the people as a whole were not conversant with Western methods and ideals; they had not the advantages Amanullah himself possessed, and they were quite content with things as they were. When, therefore, the King, fired with zeal, set about inaugurating reforms he ran counter to popular prejudice and aroused bitter and fanatical opposition. Amanullah sought to accomplish in weeks what could be attained only in years, and he has paid the penally for his errors. He started with the patriarch when he should have commenced with the child, and the result is that the country he sought to lift ‘has, for the nonce at least, receded further into the slough. It is easy to train the twig; it is impossible to bend thfc tree. Amanullah’s fate is an object lesson to all zealous reformers. There Is wisdom in the adage, “Make haste slowly.”