Pretty, resourceful Mme Andre Viollis was last week the first
journalist to enter Afghanistan's freshly captured capital Kabul . Her paper Le Petit Parisien had staked her to an airplane.
With quick, appraising, bright French eyes she took the measure of the
Conqueror, potent Nadir Khan, told how he rode through the streets on a
prancing charger preceded by musicians, how his swart warriors danced
and sang, how the people hailed him with shouts of “Liberator!
Liberator!” Nadir had liberated Kabul from “The
Usurper,” rapacious Bandit-King Habibullah. But as the professed
champion of rightful King Amanullah the
Conqueror and Liberator found himself last week in a slight quandary.
Ambition and perhaps destiny called him to the Throne. Duty bade him
proclaim the restoration of King Amanullah. Came a great warrior shout
of “Nadir is our King!”—a pointed suggestion which,
according to Mme Viollis, “the Conqueror heroically
resisted.” “If Nadir doesn't become King, we shall all go
away!” chorused the tribesmen, or words to that effect. Still the
Conqueror held temptation at bay, but after some further shouting he
was seen to bow his head. After profound meditation he spoke huskily:
“Allah is my witness, I did not want to become King! But I am the
servitor of the tribes of my country. Since the People designate me
King, I accept! Let us pray.” After the fervent prayer cannon
boomed a 21 gun salute. First and only country to recognize Conqueror
Nadir last week was his northern neighbor, Russia. Hardly had the smoke
from Kabul's ancient brass saluting cannon died away than Afghans were
telling each other hot news. Servants searching the hastily deserted
palace of “Usurper” Habibullah had come upon a locked closet.
Inside the closet were six smouldering corpses. Three were
recognizable: Abdul Majif and Hayatullah, brother and half-brother of
exiled Amanullah, and Mohammed Osman, one-time governor of Kandahar,
whose great Afghan influence once won him the title of
“King-maker.” All three, held as hostages, had been murdered
as the armies of Nadir approached Kabul.
