HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1929-02-21, Page 7_.},.
Dictator ofeform lBritisb Get .Truth
_.. .,.
Abdicates His Throne Of Island Murder s
King
Amanullah in Contrast to King Alexander Surrender's Investigator Finds 1927 Trag-"
P
Su reixre Power While the Other Takes it edies in Solanrrona Had
At a Political Crisis No Real Revolution-
ary Basis
A BRITISH VIEW REVENGE MOTIVE
to many of the cherished social and
religious feelings of. Ills subjects by Nearly. two ,years .,ago •reports 'came
putting a ban on polygamy, by insist- from the Solomon Isiaucis, in the :t'a-
ine on t'Juropean clothing, by deolar- chic, of a revolt among the nativew
into that the Mohamineclan Sunday int wlsicl? Members of the island oou•
was no longer .a holiday, by forbid-
ding the wearing of the foo and by stabulary bad been slain et Guadal•
abolishing the purdah and the veil for •canal and Malaita; it was periodical -
women Popular discontent at length lY reported for several weeks that the
broke forth In civil war, in which killings were the precureovs of agen-
Annanullah's troops suffered defeat" rat rising of the islanders• Later in"
"His error," says the Evening formation revealed that certain mem-
Standard, "the error which brought begs of the I;.olokumahe tribe on the
about his do•tvnfail, probably consist- Island of Guadalcanal bad, indeed, at
ed in believing himself to be the man Verakone, on February 14, 1927, slain
to carry out this task. He evidently three members of the armed' eon -
was not. His whole career Lias seg.. stabulary, named neat/sate Gena and
gested lean ambition and little Itis- Veki, together with a boy flamed
oration, and the intemperate haste Isekipeta, who happened to be in their
with which he promulgated his re- company, and that nine tribesnnen had
forms was very far from statesman- been arrested and tried for the crimes,
like. of whom two were aeginitted, one re -
"Kemal Pasha stood in a wholly dif- ' 1)rived and six hanged.
ferent relation to his people. The A few weeks previously INT, R. 13e11,
Turks had passed through a century District Officer at Malaita, had been
of continual loss and disgrace, cul- killed at Iswaiamba by Sinarangoese,
urinating in a disaster which made who, in the fight whieh followed be -
them feel that they were on the brink tween the constabulary and. the nna-
ot destruction. Then there arose a tines, had also slain K. C Lilies, a
national hero who •saved them and cadet in the Administrative Service,
whom they were inclined in conse- and a clerk named Marcus, as well as
quenoe devotedly to obey. twelve members of the native •cont
"He on his side saw that his pees,. stabulary. Several of those conceru-
tige offered an opportunity for the in- ed in this affair were also dealt with
troduction of Western customs which Rumors of a coining general rising
might never recur, and taht it it was persisted in the news reports to Lon.
to be done at all it must be done don. The British Secretary of State
"The problem of gov.-ernment is riot
to devise an Ideal system, but to work
out a system which, will give good re-
sults in. the conditions aud for the
people of a particular country. Mod -
emit= and centralization will not do
for fanatical clans."
—The Daily Telegraph,
"The experience of many kings and
princes of Asia may at least console
hint in his retirement. His own grand-
ee father, A.bdnrrahmau, ate the bread of
exile r eleven weary years before he
returned to rule Afghanistan with a
rod of Iron,"
--The Times,
King ng Ainauuliah of Afghanistan has
abdicated, and his elder brother, who
was the heir to the Throne ten years
ago and was supplanted, now succeeds
to the. Throne, Whether he will prove
as good a Icing as Aulauullab remains
to be seer), but our prophecy . some
weeks ago that the ex -King would
learn that the way of the reformer
is hard is justified by events.
"Elis pilgrimage to Europe was a
dangerous adventure, which proved
his undoing," says the Morning Post,
and ina leader gods back to the Old
Testament for its illustration of this
modern happening.
"The Afghans are the strongest
and most. fanatical of Mohammedans;
and the unveiling of Queen Sourlya
on board ship was the beginning of a
series of changes every one of which
was felt to be an outrage to their
faith. -
An Old Testament Comparison
"if our readers would realize the
sort of Gonfifct which followed let
them react' those chapters in the First
Book of Kings which relate the con-
flict between bring Ahab and Queen
Jezzebel on the one side and Elijah
and his brother -prophets on the other.
"The Mullahs are a great power in
Afghanistan. When they opposed the
Ii ing's commands he put certain of
them to death, but could not break
au influence far more powerful than
nus own:
".,4,nd.A.bab said to Elijah, Hast thou
found me, 0 mine enemy? And he
answered, I have Sound thee; because
thou hast sold thyself to work evil
in the sight of the Lord.
"That; we may be certain, is how
the .Mullahs regarded Amanullah ;s at-
tempts to introduce. European cloth-
ing, the education and unveiling of
women, and all the other departures
from the customs of their faith.
"I was a hopeless crusade from the
first, aud has come to its inevitable
end. Amanullah has so bitterly of-
fended national feeling" in Afghanistan
that after a sharp fight he bas found
the only course open to him to throw
himself upon the mercy of the brother
whose Throne he had usurped, So
ends—an amazing story. As to the
future, we can only say that Inaya-
tullah is the rightful' King, and is
said to fellow the policy of his father,
If he, Hoes so, he is assured of the
friendship of this country."
"The ex -King's error," asserts the
Times, "seems to have lain not in' his
zeal for reform but in his concentra-
tion of effort on non-essential but an-
noying changes; above all in his re-
fusal to recognize that he, had not
acquired- the prestige of, the Turkish
Dictator whom he imitated, and that
his country did not reproduce the con-
ditions that enabled Gitasi Mustafa
Kemal tc impose his reforms upon a
sturdy but highly disciplined• people.
&cede Will Surely Germinate
"Yet, whatever his mistakes, what-
ever his miscalculations, he is en-
titled to, 0 large nneasure of sympathy
from the' Western world which he paid
the compliment of Imitation. He has
failed, but: -he has failed in what every
European who believes in the value of
our civilization holds to be a good
cause. Nor is his failure yet assured.
Ile has Sown seeds among the young
generat1 a of Afghans that will surely
ge.rmivate.
"Ire has insisted on the value of
education and of organization,,and on
the neeea 1ty ot )earning more frnn.
the West: than the use of machine-
guns aud•magazine riiies, and of sup.
inressing that widespread financial cor-
ruption which has been the canker of
so many Asiatic monarchies.
"Ilia . innovating zeal doubtless
etroused the indignation of many of
his sultjects—more especially when
it was nianife?Sted int attempts to Im-
prove the Status and to modify the
traditional dress of women—but all
Its consequences will hardly disap-
pear. He. ivay leave Afghanistan for
ever, but, it the hlulahs have seen the
last of hint, they may not have seen
the last of his refoi'tnis."
The Daily Telegraph sums up the
Trolley which has lad to King Antanul-
lah.' ,overthrow. After tilidding to the
rinses journey to Europe it.states:•--
"On the -return of the King and
Queen an endeavor was nmde to put
these fleas into -practice. The King
ltinsaif announced that he would: be
his own Prime Minister, that libraries
and factories would be established,
quickly, Icing Amanuliah had earned
no such reverence from the Afghans.
Amanuliah failed in a work of states-
manship because he was not a great
statesman.
"His adventure may postpone the
Westernization of Afghanistan, but it
it highly unlikely that it will for ever
avert. There may be much to be
said against our civilization, and our
own sages frequently refer to the
wisdom ot peoples which remain in
their primitive condition.
"Nevertheless, in the long run, few
peoples of the earth decline the ma-
terial advantages of civilization."
- A Dangerous Factor.
Keeping Maple Leaf to F w
CANADIAN STAR PAIR SHOWING AMERICA HOW TO SPOUT
Percy Williams and Jimmy Ball, the "fastest human," and one at the
beat quaff°ter?milers, respectively.
C, ndoorehouse, "that the murders
for the Colonies was apparently much were not due to any general hatred
disturbed, for in ]klatch, 192?, he sent of government measures among the
tribe concerned, leading to some act
by which they endeavored to throw
off this, to them, intolerable yoke, but
to a combination of circumstances in
which jhe personal element mainly
out the truth in such affairs, even in entered. The native tax had nothing
its most remote possessions, so that to do with, these murder's."
adequate steps may be taken beton
the expected calamity arrives. In The Malaita Murders
these cases no steps will be necessary, Dealing with the Malaita murders,
for the Moorhouse report shows that Sir 11:. C. poorhouse pays a high
the Guadalcanal tragedy was inspired tribute to Mr. Bell, who "well-nigh
by two criminals, one of a former con- achieved the impossible" as District
stable, without any idea of an, writ- Officer, and who gained the confidence
ing, while the killing of Bell and his of the natives by hie interest in their
"Respite his present adversity;" I companions at Malaita had been affairs and his ever-present, if some -
says the Star, "the ex -King is clearly brought about by ae native leader tinges stern, sense of justice."
not without support In his own eoulei named Basiana for revenge because Basiana, who was the leader of the
try, or he could not have gone as far Bell had already prevented a revolt affair, was head of one of the clans
ut Lieut, -Col, Sir H. C. Moorhouse
to make an. investigation. HIis report,
which was published as a State paper
on Jan. 5 of the present year, shows
now the .British Government searches
as he did. Nor can it be expected that
even this sharp lesson will rob so
alert and enterprising a man of his
ambitions. That is the most danger-
ous factor so far as we are concerned.
Our main interest is a strong and in-
dependent Afghanistan, but for some
time at least the future is bound, to
be uncertain with so active a poten-
tial Pretender hovering about its , un-
easy borders."
Condemns Mixing
by Grain- Agents
Royal Commission, Hears
Complaints of North
Portal Producer
Eatevan, Sask.---Claiming that com-
petition for the nivei,num profit by
mixing by null agents is a source that
deprives the grain producers of a fair
price level, Frank Durick, of North
Portal, in testifying recently before
the Saskatchewan Royal Grain Com-
mission, asserted that a car of grain
should ntt be stopped on its journey
from the point of loading until un-
leaded at the lake termir.als. Ile was
supported in his views by resolutions
from farnicrn of the Rock Precee
trier. •
The witness claimed that the ship-
per began to get the worst of it from
the moment he hauled his grant to the
country elevator or the loading plat-
form. Tit the latter ease he probably
had to spend several dollars coopering
the ear at his disposal before it could
hold grain, he said, and in the former
his car as subject to being opened at
any tune the train stopped by some
niill agent who attained to get a sample
for diversion. The farmer lost, he Said,
because the prices quoted at Liverpool
"on this degraded stag";:front the 'nix-
ing houses was the basis on which the
loan on the farm is paid for his grant.
The fainters at this point, the wit-
ness said, wanted this manipulation of
grain at the nixing houses stopped
by law. He advoeatect moving the in-
spection departnlett from Winnipeg to
the lake tread and permitting no grad-
ng other than a preliminary at point
of shipment until the unloading sample
is taken at the terrminals,
A resolution presented to the Conn-
mission suggested that at least tine
farmer should hold a position on every
harbor board in the Dominion through
which Canadian wheat: was moved. The
resolution also urged that a Govern-
ment elevator he placed at New West-
niinster, 4€1,
The old 'War Wheat Board received
a tribute by resolution preeented
through )i'rank Durick, for the loam
United Fanners of C;anzda B,xanch.
They suggested, that tite Government
re-establish the .Board. The Govern-
ment was nettling a railroad syytelin
for the country, be pointed out. Why
not let the country. rust the grain in-
snd girls' and boys between 6 and 11 1dustry, since they raid nc well dtiri tg
;,tears; rrf age in Kabul conttpulsorily the Wert
educated together. ..i
'TT::rl this been all, aTI might yet Too often the fruit of caval rivals;
have oeen well, but he went eontrary is the enitla, er disoord. r•
which Basiana and his friends had
planned.
Billy Viti's Grievance
In dealing with the Guadalcanal
case, the report says that in the course
of the inquiry it became evident that
two men, Tuatakombo and Billy Viti,
alias Talolia, were the chief instiga-
tors of the mtirders. Tutab.ombo was
known as the village bad man, while
Billy Viti had been a good constable
until he bad been *fined S15 in 1926,
when be, too, had become a bad man.
Billy, it appears, had been charged
with having more wives than the law
allowed, so he was suinmoned before
Funansua. He came bringing his
three wives, "to whom there is ample
evidence to show that he was married
according to native custom. It was
on the charge of having a third wife
that he was convicted and fined."
Sir H. C. Moorhouse declares on in-
formation and belief that be is `con;
viewed that the official Funansua did
not exercise sufficient caro as to
whether the complaint was actually
lodged by the first wife, as required
by the law or was one worked up by
the police, "possibly acting under a
wrong interpretation of the law."
At any rate, smarting under the
humiliation of the fine, Billy Viti
allied himself with the notorious
Tuatakombo and became his friend.
When this `friend was arrested he
planned the extinction of his enemy
T'unausua.
"I ant of the opinion," says Sir 11,
and a devil -devil man of considerable
influence. 1 -le had been for some time
sacrificing pigs (the number has been
put as high as seventy) to find out if
the auguries were atuspieious. Sud-
denly his chance came; the time for
the annual payment ,of the tax was
imminent, when, if there was any re-
sentment among the people against
the government, it would be at its
keenest; "the gods" were favorable;
Mr. Bell would Iand as usual at the
"tax House" and give the opportunity.
A big meeting was held, at which
the waverers "were brought oniy to
heel by Basiana playing his trump
card, the 'big swear' against which ap-
parently no Malaita man could stand.
It does not require much imagination
to picture Basiana and the other lead-
ers pointing out that here was a
unique opportunity, favored by 'the
gods,' of getting rid once and for all
of the government who had inter-
fered with their playful habit of pro-
miscuous murder, and arrested and
hanged their people for what was in
'their eyes justifiable homicide, who
'had substituted a paltry fine or short
term of imprisonment for, the death
sentence for adultery, who were en-
deavoring to clean up their villages
anti force their pigs into styes where
they had to be fed, and who finally
had ordered them' to' give up their
'Sniders' (a generic term for any form
of old rifle.) In fairness to the ad-
ministration, it must be recorded that
the calling in of the 'Sniders' was
...,,...e,.
done on Mr. Bell's own initiative and
without the knowledge or consent of
the Resident Commissioner,
Dingaan's Day
Rev, George Walker in the London
Daily Telegraph; (December 16, 1928,
Dingaan's Day, the great national fes-
tival of South Africa, c•onunemorated
defeat of the great Zulu chieftain by
a Boar force under Adrfes ?retorius at
Blood River.) The key to the under-
standing of the attitude of the average
South African to the inescapable na-
il -Ye question is the recognition that
South Africa, apart from the south-
western corner, is still frontier, with
frontier ideals and. fears, Essentially,
though there may be many "solutions"
as there are individuals, there is one
determining factor in the approach—
Digaau's shadow remains in the back-
ground.... The story of the Ameri-
can frontier is repeated. The Zulu
i has not yet acquired the romantic
!color of the redskin, and the dress
of Zulu and Matabele is less adapted
to effective display upon the stage.
Yet they are at Ieast. as brave, and
probably were a more disciplfaed and
dangerous foe. The S\resteru farmer
of yesterday would have seen the rea-
son for many of the apparently irk-
some regulations of modern South
Africa. , . , The memory of Ding -
ann.'s Day is at the back of the white
v'an's mind; the native is a man of
wand, not a docile hewer of wood and
drawer of water, and nothing more,
4-
India and Dominion Status
:Bombay Daily Mail: The British
Dominions, before and after obtaining
complete self-government, were and
are tattering under the same defects
which are said to exist in.india. These
diffcuities did not, however, militate
against the grant of self-government
to the. Dominions, while in India they
are pointed out to be insuperable dif•
fieulties. There are those who argue
that the grant of immediate Dominion
status or anything approaching it to
India woul spell disaster to it. It did
not do so in other parts of the British
Empire.
Of the mutual systems of guaran-
teeing bank deposits, originally oper-
ative in eight States, all have broken
clown except two,
How the Airmen Caine Through
HOW THE
Y
VR
.N WERE RESCUED FROM Knee..
Vilest party 0, <•:+:,nnen and children front the British legation at Kabul, A1ghauistan, twent
the Royal Air 'force,
iu til
r
World Census
of Agriculture
Nearing Start,
Seventy -Four Nations Join in
Plan to Help Adjust Sup-
ply and Demand
Rome.—The world agricultural cents
sus initiated by the International 1ne
s£itutie of Agriculture in Dome to or -
relate world-wide figures on the supply
and demand for farm pro[ucts is well
on the way toward achievement.
The impetus given it by the League
of Nations' World Economic Confer-
ence of 1927, the careful preparations
for it and favorable reception by the
governments give good groev.ds for,
anticipating its success.
The object of the census, which is
/planned for 193.0, is to provila for the
collection of annual agricultural sta-
tistics and to give a complete picture
of the agricultural resources of each
country,
Aa it will be carried out in every
country at the salve time and as far
as possible on a uniform system, it will
form a practically complete inventory,
of the agricultural resources of the`
whole 'world and insure, for the futur
let least, that agricultural statistics:
in the different countries ,shall be come!
parable,
The proposal for a world agricultur
al census attracted the attention of then
International E dueation Board (Rocke4
ler Foundation) which undetrtooll
to make a grant of $10,400 per annum.
for the five years 1925-29,
A special bureau charged with this
particular work was created at the
institute in 1925, and Leon. M. Esta-)
brook, of the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture, appointed direc-
tor.
So far 74 nations have definitelya
accepted the scheme of the census anti
Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy,
the Netherlands and Portugal have
undertaken to apply it tc their coil
*flies.
When the census has been taken tb4
essential function r the institute will
he to study the international produc
tion of food and raw 1naEerials and to
correlate the informatiejlego that th,&
world may have an increased known'
ect a of supplies available from count
trle8 which have a surplus and thri
probable demand fzeni countries wheri
the output is sufficient.
Britain is on Way
to New Prosperity
Says J. M Keynes
Econonnst Who Finds Effici-
ency Gain is Overhauling
Setback Since War
London --John Maynard Keynes;
the distinguished British economist,
at last sees daylight in the industrial
sky. In his presidential address at
the annual meeting of the National
Mutual Life Assurance Society here,
be cites cautious estimates which he
believes show that the burdens im-
posed nn industries since the war are
being slowly but surely wiped out by
increased efficiency of production, so
that it is only a matter of time, he
says, before Britain recovers com-
pletely.
"Between 1914 and 1924," he says.
"the average real wages for a normal
week of full employment rose by more
than eight per cent. In the same
period the weekly hours of work were
reduced more than 10 per cent. The
result is that employes were set the
task, if they weer to maintain their
pre-war position, of increasing their
efficiency by nearly 20 per cent.
The census of production in i9:.'4
indicated an increase of efficiency to
that date just about sufficient to bal-
ance the shortened hours, but it was
not able to make in addition any
contribution toward meeting the in-
creased weekly wage. Thus already
ru 1924 employers in those industries,
where the increase of efficiency had
not been above the average, were mak-
ing heavy weather.
Between 1924 and 1925, monee
and wages remained practically un-
changed, while return to the gold
standard at pre-war parity had the
effect of increasing real 'stages by a
further 8 per cent. It follows that.
employers have been raced with the
task of improving their efficiency by
16 per cent, as compared witit 1924,
before they could recover their pre-
war position. Now it is not over-
optimistic, I think, to suppose that
etUcieucy is being increased at In
per tent per annum on an average in
the whole field of industry, which,
if it is the case, is a considerable,
achievement. This means that to -day
that etliciency has rednced the ad.
verse lead from 1G lner cent, to abort.
10 per vent."
The Manchester Guardian says:
"One hardly expects optimism regard-
ing the future of British industry from
3, M. Keynes, hut We are not sure that
'this passage is not essentially the
most optimistic utterance that has re-
cently .fallen trofn the lips of any of
our eoonomio leaders."
No matter how long it rains, the,
famous 'I'aj Mahal ntansoleunt in In-
dia. leaks three drops of water, never
snore nor less. Atter 806 years no
one has been able to explain how tha
arehlteet arranged dor the <'1uE'non:p•
0e0tlet( iflr +,tion, 'which was inti'.-nded su tuts own
tuulgrle raamoria'ii,