Vain Grunts

Fortnight ago ex-King Amanullah grunted and sweated on a Kandahar platform doing a cloak & box trick to show his people that he was worthy to be their King (TIME, May 27). News from India last week indicated how vain were Amanullah's grunts. Frightened by reports of what Bacha Sakao, the usurping bandit-King, was doing to rebels--firing them from cannon, killing them on the streets-- Amanullah's followers continued to desert him in a steady stream. Last week, accompanied by his "beautiful" wife, Queen Thuraya, and his prodigiously fat Brother Inayatullah and his wife, he fled precipitately over the Indian border. At Bombay, two ambulances stood chugging expectantly at the station. Amanullah, in civilized trousers, looked worried. He was about to become a father for the seventh time. Inayatullah was expecting, too, for the fourteenth time. But the expected did not happen. The two ladies reached the Taj Mahal Hotel without the aid of ambulances.