Kabul Witnesses a Sign — Page 12
doubt that nothing was further from his mind than that he could ever become the King of Afghanistan even at the time when Amanullah Khan had left the country to its fate and on the struggle in which he was engaged hung Afghanistan's future. But the viord of God had announced to a wondering world twenty-five years before that the apparently impossible would become possible and Nadir Khan would one day sit on the throne of Habib Ullah Khan and Amanullah Khan as the beloved King of his people. Short of Funds (6) When Nadit Khan entered Afghanistan from the side of the Khost Province, he was so short of money that he did not everi possess a printing press nor could he buy one. He ·knew that in these times it was not possible to conduct a war successfully without calling in the aid of the press and V\'he1;1 1 in order -to keep foformed his friends and E;ympathisers at~d the public at large of the progress of the struggle he found it fodispetisable to_ start a paper, ·he was, for shortness of fund!;!, obliged fo purchase only a stylo-machine; a thing not worth inore than fifty rupees and on it, during th·e whole period of the war, his paper·, thelslah, usei to be printed. With such limited and confined means to fight and inflict a crushing defeat on an enemy like Bachcha·i-Saqqa who had vanquished the ex-King f. \manullah Khan with· all his mighty forces; armaments and itmn;iunitions, was. np ordinary -business and constituted alone. a great and wonderful. sign. It was to fulfil the revelation that ~Gpd. ·had vpuchsafed to His Messenger and Me£siah long ago that. co~ditions in Afghanistan so shaped themselves that in i;pite of his -cpmplete helplessness and broken health, and in spite of d,isorder 1• chaos and anarchy that reigned in the country Nadir Khan was successful in defeating Bachcha·i·Saqqa. Choice of Afghanistan (7) Nadir Khan had publicly announced time and again that he had no desire for the throne and that he would faithfully and gladly slibmit ~o the verdict of the elected and accredited spokesmen of the nation as to who should be their King and Ruler, and he did literally and in spirit abide by his announcements and did honestly seek the counsel and advice of his people. As many members of the Royal family were still alive and as on such i,kcasiOfis~Jt:he. nobles ai:e jealous of one another, it was genJlf*lly ,. . •' '·