Page 137

to the people that his sole aim was to release his country from the cruel grip of the بد بخت شقی ignorant miscreant and that he himself belonged to no party. He had to tell them that if he succeeded in driving out the Bacha, he would leave the election of the king to the nation itself to be discussed in a Grand Assembly, in which representatives from all parts of the country should take part. He had no desire to become a dictator—he نفرت داشتن loathed the idea—or to force a king upon them. Then the people would insist that if he was not fighting for the ex-King he should himself make a bid for the throne. This the Marshal was not willing to do. He openly declared that he had no desire to become king and that if the question of kingship was settled except by the Grand Assembly, there was no chance of a perma- nent peace in the country. It was not easy to make the illiterate people, who from cen- turies were accustomed to autocratic rulers, عادات comprehend these democratic notions and realize their true value. The tribes still believed that the Marshal was fighting for Amanullah Khan and so bitter was the feeling against the ex-King that some of them, 100