AFGHANISTAN: Coup and Recoup?

Indignantly denying that during his exile at Rome he has become a Roman Catholic, ex-King Amanullah of Afghanistan landed last week at Jidda on the Red Sea, the port for Mecca. After a purifying pilgrimage to the Holy City, Amanullah (his countrymen suspect) will try to stage a comeback. He lost his throne in the first place (TIME, Dec. 24, 1928, et seq.), chiefly because Afghanistan’s fanatical mullahs raised the rabble against his “impious innovations”—such as store clothes, champagne, beard-shaving. With a Meccan pilgrimage to his credit, Amanullah, if he plays sufficiently pious politics, may be able to coup and recoup.