Again, Water

Pious Afghans rejoiced last week as their new king, Nadir, "the Afghan George Washington" (TIME, Oct. 21). re-established prohibition in harmony with the holy commandment of the Koran: God declareth unto you his signs, that ye may give thanks. 0 true believers, surely wine, and lots, and images, and diving arrows, are an abomination of the work of Satan; therefore avoid them, that you may prosper.

Detestable and impious to all right-thinking Moslems were the wines, spirits and liqueurs introduced by "progressive" ex-King Amanullah, who was ousted when he went to the further extreme of commanding his women subjects to unveil their faces, his men to put their legs in trousers.

Good King Nadir wisely and benevolently announced last week that his prohibition law will apply only to native Moslems, will exempt Christian and other foreigners whose holy books enjoin them to take wine.*

"Any official of my government or member of Parliament who is found in an intoxicated condition." thundered Nadir, "will be stripped of his rank and severely punished."

In Peshawar, British India, anyone possessed of the sum of 6-c- could obtain a graphic idea of what King Nadir meant by "severe punishment." Photographs were on view, at 12 annas a peek, showing the execution of Bacha Sakao, the Water Boy Bandit King (TIME, Nov. 11). Contrary to official reports, cabled accounts, Bacha Sakao was not "humanely shot." With ankles loaded with heavy chains, he and his five companions had ropes knotted about their necks, were hauled into the air, to strangle slowly. No coward, Bandit Bacha scoffed and jeered at his executioners while breath was in him.

*St. Paul said (1 Timothy 5:23): Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. . . . The Saviour, whose first miracle on earth was to turn water into wine, once said: No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, the old is better (Luke 5:39).

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