Lord Irwin's Law

After boiling the then king's favorite general in oil, Nadir Khan, "the Afghan George Washington," ascended the throne in picturesque Kabul and has since successfully remained there (TIME, Oct. 28, 1929 et seq.). He has waxed friendly with his neighbor to the southward beyond the Khyber Pass--Lis Britannic Majesty's colonial government in India. Thus the British have been far happier than when plump Amanullah reigned, taking millions in gifts from them but making the Russians his closest economic allies. Far, far happier are they than during the subsequent brief reign of Bandit-King Bacha Sakao, whom Nadir had hanged and slowly strangled.

Therefore the British have aided Nadir Khan in two ways: 1) Lord Irwin, almost on the eve of surrendering the viceroyalty of India last April, promulgated a press ordinance making it a jailable offense for any editor to publish an article adversely affecting the relationship of India with her neighbors; 2) on May 30 a fleet of 40 two-ton trucks went through the Khyber Pass laden with British-bought, condemned French rifles and ammunition for the use of Nadir's armies. Altogether in the past seven months some 22,000 such rifles, with ammunition, have been shipped up through the Pass to Nadir. Object: to prevent the pants-shave-&-champagne regime of Amanullah from returning (TIME, Sept. 19, 1928).

Last week in Lahore came fruit of Lord Irwin's gag law. Murtz Ahmad Khan, editor of the (Persian-language) weekly Afghanistan, recently had published an editorial under the heading: WHY DOES NOT THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT IN AFGHANISTAN RESIGN? This violated Lord Irwin's law; Murtz Ahmad Khan was arrested, put on trial.

Permitted to file a list of witnesses as to the truth of his editorial, Murtz Ahmad Khan named the Foreign Secretary, the Afghan Consul General, the Director of Public Information, et al. The court ruled that these witnesses were too important, that they could have no connection with the case, that the defendant must list names of lesser stature.

Impartial observers predicted that Murtz Ahmad Khan would go to jail.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.