Under the absolute Amir

by Frank A. Martin

Amir’s interest in mechanical tools, guns, etc.—Workshops—Consumption of fuel—Ustads and workmen—Pay of men—Trades, shopkeepers, and merchants—Produce of country—Exports and imports—Irrigation of crops and fights about water—Caravans and methods of carrying freight—Weights and measures—Mirzas and offices—Debt collecting—Hindoos and Hindoo money-lenders—Mint and coinage of country.

Amir Abdur Rahman was greatly interested in all mechanical work, and his interest extended to trade, and the merchants carrying it on. The status of a merchant, in his opinion, was equal to that of any of his Government officials, and any complaint or representation a merchant might make to him was sure of a hearing. When he started his workshops, his avowed intention in doing so was not only to be able to turn out guns and rifles, but to educate his people. He said he wanted to teach them the trades of other countries, in order that they might raise themselves to a level with the people of other nations, whereby they would not only make themselves and their country as prosperous as others were, but also by having an interest in work, would lose their habits of idleness, which caused them to drift into lawlessness and wrong-doing. He afterwards complained many times that, in spite of all he had done for them, his people were still the same, and that although he had killed so many thousands, the lesson failed to have the effect he desired on the rest of his subjects.

His son, the present Amir, also takes the keenest interest in all things mechanical, and having been, from the time he was a boy, the chief officer of the Government workshops, visiting them once a week, and inspecting each department and all that was turned out, his knowledge of machinery is greater than that possessed by his father. There are some matters, however, that the Amir and the officials connected with the workshops cannot properly grasp, and occasions them a good deal of thought and perplexity. For instance, they cannot quite understand that it requires a given quantity of heat to generate a given quantity of steam, and as they burn a large amount of wood daily in the boilers (they have no coal), they are ever trying to reduce this quantity, without lessening the work of the engines. Once they thought they had solved the question, by using larger and thicker pieces of wood for the boilers, because these burnt more slowly than small pieces, and then when these huge lumps of wood failed to keep up the head of steam, and the engines ran slower and slower, they suspected the firemen of being the cause of it, and so had several of them thrashed.

Another time the stock of firewood for the boilers ran out, and a supply of freshly cut wood was brought in daily, for use until further large supplies could be arranged for, and stocked to dry. The wood being wet, it naturally burned slowly, and the steam could not be kept up, and although the daily consumption of wood remained the same, the engines worked worse than ever. They tried many things to alter this state of affairs, and looked in all directions but the right one to find the cause of the engines not working well, even opening out the cylinders to see if the pistons were right, and when all their investigations failed to locate the cause of the trouble, the firemen were thrashed again. The firemen were once convicted of falsifying the quantity of wood burnt daily, making out that a larger quantity was used than was correct, and selling the balance, and after that they were ever suspected of doing their work badly or trying to spoil things for revenge. This was principally the reason that, whenever one of the officials got a bright idea for reducing the quantity of wood burnt daily, the firemen were invariably accused of spoiling the experiment, and as often as not were punished on suspicion. The life of a man who works on that which is little understood by those over him is not all roses.

Although I was nominally in charge of the boilers and engines, with all sorts of other work, I was not responsible for the quantities of materials used, that being in the hands of another official, and the inherent suspicious nature of the Afghan, together with his ignorance of work, makes him chary of accepting advice on such matters, so that, although I was consulted, my opinion, which exonerated the firemen, was looked upon as prejudiced, and my proposal to cut the wood into small pieces was regarded as a desire to waste Government property. Soon after my appointment as engineer to the Government, I had received another firman (Amir’s written order) which placed the engines and boilers in my charge in addition to the work for which I had been engaged, and I was told to thoroughly examine them, as the engines worked very badly, and to report if it was the fault of the engines, boilers, or the firemen. No firman is given without all people whom it concerns knowing it very soon after, and when I went to the boiler-house the next day, I found the men there very gloomy, and they probably thought that, as they who were on the work always and had done their best to keep steam up on the limit of firewood had failed, there was little chance of my doing better, and then, no doubt, I would put the blame on them, according to the method of their own people, who always blame the men under them when they are unable to right matters. My examination of the boilers showed that they were encrusted with a thick deposit of lime and mud, for no attempt had been made to clean them out since they were first started, so the men told me, and it took about two weeks to put matters right. After this the firemen always referred to me as an authority when blamed for their work, and it was considered that I had found out their swindling and had promised not to report them if they carried on the work properly in future. In many other things I found that it was thought I favoured the workmen, and shielded them from punishment because I pitied them, for I let it be known very clearly that I considered the pay of most of the men inadequate, and though I was able to have the wages of many of the men increased as opportunity offered, it was done more as a favour to me than anything else, and other workmen remained at the same rate of pay on which they started work.

NEW PORTION OF KABUL WORKSHOPS, WITH THE SIRDAR’S BUNGALOW AND OFFICE IN CENTRE.

[To face p. 232.

Another idea they had was that of bringing water to a higher level by means of syphons, and one day, when I was in durbar with the late Amir, he held forth on this subject to some chiefs who had come to see him from a distant part of the country, explaining to them, that if you take an inverted syphon, and pour water down one of its legs, the water rises up out of the other one; it did not rise up far above the level of the second opening, he said, but he intended using a series of them to bring water in this way to a dry stretch of land near Kabul, which stood above the level of the neighbouring streams, and he turned and asked me, if what he said was not correct. I gave no answer, as an affirmative would involve me in the carrying out of the work, and to say otherwise would not be polite in public durbar, when it was the Amir who spoke. Some time afterwards the principal ustads (foremen) of the workshops were sent for by the Amir, who explained his idea to them, and told them to think it over and see who could do this work, either by such syphons or a pump that would work by itself. They retired and gave several days to the consideration of the problem, and making various experiments, and I heard of the matter by their eventually coming to me in ones and twos, to ask my opinion and advice.

In the iron and brass foundries, I found that the quantity of fuel allowed for drying moulds and cores was so small that almost half of the castings turned out bad. This was another case of saving money for the Government by the official in charge, whose pay had been increased for so doing, as a well-wisher of the Government. The great percentage of bad castings caused thereby was an item of loss not considered until I pointed it out.