Under the absolute Amir

by Frank A. Martin

When magazines and periodicals are sent to Kabul the postage on them is a large item, and I once noticed that the postage I paid on a small magazine between Peshawar and Kabul (some two hundred miles) was three rupees, while the postage on the same from England to Peshawar was a penny. Letters sent from Kabul to India have to be addressed in Persian, and Indian stamps must be put on the envelopes besides paying the postage in Afghanistan.

One person in Kabul with whom English people are greatly brought in contact is the interpreter. There are several interpreters, but only one who is appointed to interpret between the Amir and the English residents, and this post is one which involves a good deal of work, for the man, in addition to interpreting whenever the Amir or the princes require his services, has to translate all letters from the English to the Amir, and vice versâ. The Government correspondence with other countries is translated by others, who are specially appointed for the post, and they are not encouraged to mix with the English people in Kabul. To be an interpreter a man must be quick at catching all inflections of meaning in the two languages, and must be ever ready to put in a word of his own in case he fails to hear something which is said on either side, for the Amir is impatient of having anything repeated. He must also be, in a measure, conversant with the subject under discussion, as otherwise technical words would bring him to a standstill, and very often such English words require several sentences of Persian to explain them, as they have no equivalents except those adopted from other languages of late years. But particularly must he be able to interpret all that is said quickly and without mistake, otherwise he will be put aside and another man taken on in his place, and to him this means disgrace for always.

CHAPTER XIII
SOLDIERS AND ARMS

Clothing—Reviews—Drill—Uniforms of Amir’s bodyguard—Arms—Pay—Medals—Length of service—Substitutes—Barracks—Mode of life—Gambling among soldiers—Different tribes forming regiments—Thief tribe and regiment—Officers and promotion—Bands—Afghan anecdotes of incidents during war 1879-81—Afghan Army as a fighting machine—Condition of country for warfare—Illustration of one side of Afghan character.

The first thing that strikes one on seeing a regiment of Afghan soldiers is their irregular, slovenly appearance and slouching gait. Their clothes, for they have no uniforms for regular use, are of any sort and pattern as the wearer may desire or his purse can afford. Some have old English army or railway coats; others have coats of various colours and materials which have been made in the bazar; and coats made by the bazar tailors fit where they touch. Some have cloth trousers, some cotton ones, and some the Afghan tombons. Many wear the Afghan tombons with the shirt outside, as is usual in Eastern countries, and a sheepskin jacket, and this is the dress more generally worn, particularly among those regiments which are composed of hillmen. All of them, of course, have leather belts with pouches on either side, for neither soldiers nor civilians consider themselves dressed without them, and an Afghan soldier or civilian who was seen without a belt would certainly look undressed to any one who had been some time in the country. For headgear the turban is commonly worn; but there are different varieties of caps and hats, of which one that is liked by many is similar to the Russian military peaked cap. Cavalry soldiers, or sowars as they are called, wear long boots of the Russian pattern, with very high heels, which give the wearers a curious perched-up appearance; and these boots are much bepatched and mended. As I do not remember seeing a sowar with new boots on at any time, I fancy they must all be bought secondhand. The clothes the soldiers wear are generally old and much worn, but I have at times seen a havildar (sergeant) with a new coat, and as the man has to save up for many days before he can afford one, he pays great care in the selection of the cloth, and usually gets it of a vivid colour, light yellow or blue for preference, which soon looks the worse for wear, and necessitates the man spending many a half-hour when off duty in cleaning it. His old coat he sells to one of the men of his company.

When a regiment is drawn up in line the rifles are held at all angles, for the men are not drilled as drilling is understood in other countries, and on the march a regiment looks like an armed mob rather than soldiers. In order to obtain a good appearance during the two annual reviews, the regiments are marched on to the review ground, and the officers then move the men singly into their proper places, pulling one man forward here and pushing another back there, until they form a double line of somewhat varying straightness, and when the review is finished (the review consists of the Amir, or the prince as his deputy, riding past the different regiments), the men are again pushed into place to form fours, and are then marched off, all keeping their own step, back to the barracks, and on the road one man or another joins the four in front or behind in order to speak to a comrade, so that the little formation they had is soon upset, and the regiment goes along as it likes best, and that is—anyhow. The men, after review or parade, which latter is the same as the review, except that one regiment only is placed in line and inspected by its officers, seem to consider that they have taken part in manœuvres of considerable intricacy, and appear to be rather proud of themselves. The men of the Amir’s bodyguard, however, are drilled. The drill consists in the men, having already been taught to form themselves into fours, marching slowly in time to a drum-beat, and swinging each leg in turn high up in the air in front of them before bringing the foot down. This drill, which takes place on the main road outside the Arak palace, is witnessed by a large number of admiring citizens, but the spectacle of a regiment solemnly swinging their legs well up as they march, taking four or five seconds to each step, reminds one of a batch of recruits doing the goose-step.

Regiments are occasionally drawn up on parade and fire volleys of blank cartridges; but there are no rifle ranges at which the men are trained to shoot. Some batteries of artillery occasionally have target practice: but this is more to test guns than actual training. Those artillerymen whom I have seen at practice were very erratic in their shooting, and were seldom nearer than fifty yards of the object fired at, and when their general sighted a gun himself and got the target at two thousand yards, he was so pleased that he had to walk up and down for a few minutes. The reason men are not trained in shooting is, I think, because in Afghanistan among all classes of men a cartridge is looked upon as a cartridge, and not a thing to be used without necessity. The only good shots I have seen are the workmen who test all rifles and guns as they are turned out of the shops. I have sometimes, when practising, given the small rifle I was using to one or other of the soldiers with me to try a shot, and in no case was any man at all near the target. The hillmen who are more accustomed to shooting and are sometimes good shots, lie down and rest the rifle on a rock when firing.

The Amir’s bodyguard, foot and cavalry, are the only regiments properly uniformed, and the Amir sees that they keep their uniforms clean, and their arms too. The foot-guards are armed with Lee-Metford rifles and bayonets, and the horse-guards with revolvers, swords, and carbines. Of the other troops, a few regiments of the most trusted men are armed with Martinis, and the rest have Sniders. The artillery batteries have six and nine pounder guns, and there are some mule batteries with six and three pounders, but the guns are badly sighted and of short range, the fuzes also are unreliable, and the shells of small efficiency, so that the artillery cannot be considered very formidable. The mules and horses used for the artillery and transport are strong and sturdy, and are used to mountain paths and roads, but the transport animals are too few for the service of a large army. The rifles, which are made in the Government shops, are also badly sighted, and hardly two of them shoot alike. If they are used for firing against a large number of men massed together, the defective sighting may not make a great deal of difference; but accuracy is of first importance in a rifle, and the shooting of trained troops in action is sufficiently bad, without leaving much else to chance. Another great defect is that the powder, which is made in the country, fouls the bore after four or five rounds so badly that cleaning is necessary, for otherwise the kick of the gun prevents straight shooting, and tends to demoralize the shooter. Maxim and Gatling guns are also made in the shops, but owing to the inaccurate fitting of working parts, and the cartridges not being uniform and exact to gauge, it is seldom that a full belt of cartridges can be fired without a stop.