Coup d' Escape

Even wiliest Oriental priests and brigands were baffled, last week, by the double and triple crossing executed by Amanullah of Afghanistan. Was he still king or wasn't he? As first unfolded by the world press, the story was of deceptive simplicity. It was a good story, too, for headlines blared:

AFGHANISTAN HAS THREE KINGS IN ONE WEEK!

First off, the doughty brigand Bacha Sakao, called "The Water Carrier," stormed Kabul and forced King Amanullah to abdicate in favor of his brother Inayatullah (TIME, Jan. 21). Secondly, the bandits continued their storming until Second-King-of-the-Week Inayatullah abdicated, hefted his 280 pounds into an airplane, flew away. (At this point the whereabouts of Amanullah were unknown and his assassination rumored.) Thirdly, the "Water Carrier" Bacha Sakao occupied the arg or citadel of Kabul and proclaimed himself "Padishah Habibullah.''

Since "padishah" means "emperor," and since Habibullah was the name of the late father of Amanullah and Inayatullah, the usurper seemed to have aggravated his deed by adding every insult and presumption to injury. Radio flashes from Kabul first told that the Third-King-of- the-Week had restored order, then envisioned the British Minister to Afghanistan, Sir Francis Humphrys, as standing on the roof of his legation, peering about through powerful field glasses, espying only cowed citizens and their ferociously armed conquerors. Some of the bandits were described as "swathed in cartridge belts up to the eyes," and "jingling with as many as three rifles, six pistols, and two swords." The new Water Carrier-Emperor was said to have ridden into Kabul on a saddleless horse, guiding the beast by knee pressure, whooping triumphantly, and ambidextrously brandishing two rifles. Meanwhile, where was Amanullah?

In a barbaric land where tribal loyalties are the strongest bond, the person of the King may be of paramount significance. Had swart, wiry little King Amanullah been assassinated, neither his phlegmatic 280-pound brother, or another brother who is insane, or the boy Crown Prince Rahmatullah (TIME, Sept. 17) could have saved the dynasty of Durani. But Amanullah was not dead. Presently he came speeding by motor car into Kandahar, "Second City of the Realm," after encountering no opposition from the bandits who, stupid, seemed to think that when a king has abdicated he is going to stay abdicated.

Five minutes after the arrival of His Majesty at Kandahar the royal standard was broken out from the Palace staff, exactly as if nothing had happened. Next day an airplane, heavy laden, arrived at Kandahar from Kabul via Peshawar, British India; and out slumped Big Brother Inayatullah. For him were flown no royal standards. Therefore the double abdication of last week appeared as nothing more than a successful double cross to outwit Bandit Bacha Sakao, and permit King Amanullah to stage a coup d' escape.

Within the palace at Kandahar waited two interesting women, Queen Thuraya, and Dowager Queen Ulya Hazrat. Amid all the excitement Thuraya was preparing to give birth to her fifth child. Paradoxically it was she, with her taste for low cut gowns, short skirts, cocktails and going unveiled (TiME, Jan. 23, 1928 et seq.), who especially enraged the old-fashioned Moslem tribesmen of Afghanistan against her husband. Though Orientals are not so easily moved by a woman in childbed as Occidentals, it seemed last week that burgeoning Queen Thuraya was being almost as clever as her husband.

The real focus of interest was Her Majesty the Dowager Queen. She it was who flew out of Kabul at Christmastide (TIME, Jan. 7) to rally the loyalty of her great family of potent chiefs around Kandahar. How well she succeeded will not soon be known; but at least King Amanullah had a second capital to flee to, last week, after losing his first.

Sinister and compelling is the Dowager Queen. She was not the first wife of the late Amir Habibullah, but she was his only wife of royal blood. Therefore she decided that her son, Amanullah, her husband's third son, should succeed him, despite the fact that Afghan law reposed the succession in Big Brother Inayatullah, the eldest son. Probably this scheming mother knows quite well how her husband chanced to be assassinated at some distance from Kabul (1919), just when the Capital and Treasury had been left under guard of Prince Amanullah.

Under the circumstances Big Brother waived his rights, and Little Brother seized the Throne, which he has since held for ten years. In the first year he provoked with Britain the so-called "Third Afghan War," and thus he won a peace treaty which abrogated the British "sphere of influence" over Afghanistan, and proclaimed the country fully autonomous and independent. At this time the British subsidy of -L-120,000 ($583,200) per year was exchanged for an annual Russian grant of one million gold rubles ($515,000) to the Afghan Treasury. The interest of these two Great Powers in barren and mountainous little Afghanistan results, of course, from the fact that it is a buffer state between India and Russia.

Naturally Moscow news organs declared, last week, that "England" had fomented the revolt against Amanullah. Significantly, a large section of the European press took this view, though London denials were vigorous. For several weeks Russian journalists have been saying that England's arch-spy, Col. Thomas Edward (Revolt in the Desert*) Lawrence, was the nigger in Afghanistan's woodpile. Last week the omnivorous New York Times even printed the preposterous rumor, current in the Kabul bazaars, that the new Bandit-Water-Carrier-Emperor of Afghanistan is Colonel Lawrence!

Strategists familiar with the Afghan terrain pointed out that winter snows are now rapidly blocking important roads and passes, thus making it unlikely that a decisive engagement between the anointed King and the self-styled Emperor can be fought out until spring.

Historians recalled that the Amir Abdur Rahman, grandfather of Amanullah, endured exile from his country for ten years and then fought victoriously back (1880) to resume his throne.

*The title of his U. S. best-selling book about how he fomented an Arabian revolt against Turkey during the War.