Page image — the source of record
Machine transcription
answer, "Myself and the members of my
family have resolved to serve the mother-
land at this critical moment. Our only aim
is to re-establish peace and to extinguish
the fire of civil war now ablaze, which if
it last longer, will, we are quite sure, ulti-
mately ruin it and deprive it of its prestige
and independence."
During his short stay at Bombay, the
Marshal had a very busy time. He published
some pamphlets containing his views on the
Afghan problem and sent these to different
quarters of Afghanistan, asking his country-
men to abstain from the bloodshed and civil
war and to settle their differences by calling
a Jirgah, to which representatives from all
parts of the country should be invited. In
a certain meeting at Bombay, he openly
declared his policy in the following words:
"My object in going to Afghanistan is to
ask my countrymen to give up this inter-
necine warfare and settle their differences
amicably by means of a Jirgah, in which
they might elect a wise and energetic man
from among themselves as their King. I
am neither against King Amanullah Khan
81
F
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.