7 JUNE 1919, Page 2

The young Amir of Afghanistan seems already to have repented

of his rash folly in declaring war upon us. In a letter dated May 28th, three weeks after the first Afghan attack on the Indian frontier, the Amir declared that he would stop hostilities and asked for an honourable peace. The repulse of his troops with great loss in the Khyber region and the victorious advance of the Indian Army on the liAndahar road doubtless helped to convince him that war would not pay. But our air raids. on Jelalabad and Kabul probably pointed the moral in a still more direct way. The Afghans are no longer safe in their hill fast- nesses. The British airman can spy them out and bomb them wherever they seek refuge. Araanullah forgot this, and his young Turkish and Bolshevik friends did not enlighten him. The Antic would be well advised to make a prompt submission • on the terms offered by the Viceroy, and to dismiss the foreign mischief-makers who have brought him into his present plight.