. . .
[Thursday 4 December] During these busy days here, I’ve taken a tonga only once. The remainder of the time I walk. Perhaps I average six to eight miles a day. This morning I was trying to take in some of the details to pass on to you. There is a profusion of flowering shrubs—poinsettias, bougainvilleas and a low bush with bright henna flowers which are trumpet-like and grow in clusters. The trees are magnificent—huge peepuls with smooth whitish bark and light green and glossy leaves; pines, tamarisks and sheesham. I believe I even saw a eucalyptus tree. Then, too, there’s a pepper tree which looks much like a willow. Out on the dusty plain there are real autumn tints, although no trees seem to be losing their leaves. The flowers, too, are interesting. There are roses everywhere in bloom, and considered almost a weed. They come in all colors. There are many deep red lilies in bloom in a park I pass. The big thing, however, is chrysanthemum. They are everywhere in purples, russets and yellows. The birds are very noisy, especially the grey-necked Indian crow. . . . The big hawk, called chiel, has a note of his own, and he is very bold, like the crow swooping right down on the sidewalks for tidbits. There are sparrows, of course, and minas (which you have seen in Honolulu and Hongkong). This morning I saw 6 brilliant green parrots (very noisy), with long pointed tails and (I suspect) grey-green heads.
On the roads one sees tongas, bicycles galore, not so many cars, but plenty of bullock and buffalo carts with heavy wooden wheels. Then there are the donkeys. . . . Sometimes you’ll see a six-foot Pathan sitting on one and holding his foot [sic] up so they won’t drag. For the most part, these donkeys go in groups of four or five, carrying wood, coal, sugar cane or anything else and in charge of an urchin who is no bigger than they. Men and boys alike, however, sit on the very end of the donkey—directly over its hind legs. I suppose this is to prevent breaking its back in case of a huge man. I have a donkey-boy friend who is very dirty and loves to stare at me out of his good eye as he passes the hotel gate.
One also sees sheep and goats being led singly through the bazaars on leashes like dogs. This morning a boy had a pet (and huge) ram which he was sicking onto his boy friends, much to their terror and delight. The timid ones ran behind a grey-bearded barber who shaved a customer squatting in the dust all unconscious of what transpired.
Last evening, after tea and writing, I walked through the crowded bazaar to see the remarkably fine fruit and vegetable stands, and to watch good Moslems drinking tea out of large and lovely brass samovars. There was what sounded like a riot down the street, but when I went over I found it was only a lot of school boys holding a silver athletic trophy aloft and celebrating at the top of their lungs. But you should see the carrots and cabbages, the grapes and pomegranates they have here. I should think they are unsurpassed anywhere. This (and Afghanistan) is real fruit and vegetable country. The other shops were interesting, too; but rather a hodge-podge of shoddy European stuff mixed in with the native brass, cloth, etc. Plenty of tailors seem to live in the bazaar, and I saw a shop where the big Singer Sewing machine had been sunk into the floor so that the pedal was out of sight, its operator appeared to be legless. Coming out (and passing the old blind beggar who asks Allah to bless you) I heard some tentative drum beating. Ahead, there was a bright light as for a celebration and presently I saw a band of bearded Pathans of the most remarkable aspect. On their heads were bright yellow hats meant to look like tam o’shanters, but managing to look more like chef’s caps. They had abbreviated khaki coats on, and their baggy trousers (believe it or not) were fashioned from Scottish plaid. There were four drummers and about six pipers with bagpipes under their arms. They stood in a circle facing inward, and blocking the sidewalk. When he saw me, the No. 1 drummer exercised his English. He said, ‘bon, thoo, tree!’ With that, the whole crowd burst into allegedly musical action. The old blind beggar came hobbling over, calling on Allah and hoping to find a generous crowd, and I escaped.
Enders left for the Khyber Pass on the morning of Saturday 6 December for the two-day drive to Kabul. He would have arrived there on Monday 8 September, the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked (Asia time). He was the sole representative of the U.S. government in Afghanistan for the next five months. It was an area that seethed in intrigue, although the country was officially neutral in the war. The British and the Americans were on one side, facing the Germans, Italians, and Japanese on the other. The Soviets were the allies of the British and Americans against the Germans and Italians, but not against the Japanese. The fortunes of the Allies looked grim in 1941 and 1942, and Burma—and India itself—appeared to be in peril. Under Rommel the Germans and Italians drove to just outside Cairo. The Germans then turned on the Soviet Union and pushed the Russians back to Stalingrad and Moscow. The Afghans wanted to be on the winning side, and it took all of Enders’ skills to persuade them that the Allies, led by America, would turn the corner. His insouciance, which irritated some of his colleagues, was just right for this mission.
Enders traveled widely in Afghanistan from the time he arrived in December 1941 until he was reassigned to New Delhi in December 1943. Most of his letters are in the archives of Military Intelligence (RG 165), but some are in the State Department archives, on microfilm. As an example, Enders, by letter of 30 March 1943, requested a Dodge carryall for the Afghan king, at the king’s request, and Enders requested it be the U.S. Army Air Force’s Dodge, diverted to be used by the king.14
Some of Enders’ military intelligence reports were reviewed by one or two and sometimes three different people, using a red pencil and occasionally ink, in different handwriting. They critically, and sometimes sarcastically, reviewed Enders’ comments on geography, history, and politics, with global statements like “False.” They frequently corrected his spelling and distances, sometimes very sharply. I do not know if Enders ever saw these comments, but if he did he must have been furious. The reports show that Enders had many, many problems with the various Afghan factions, foreign diplomats, Axis operatives, the OSS, his counterparts in the American diplomatic service, and the British.
One of Enders’ reports was dated 6 September 1943, on “Afghanistan’s Strategic Geography.” This report describes the area that Enders planned to visit in India in November and December 1943. It implies that he already knew what he planned to see in India. The most relevant portion is Part IV, “Attack from the South”: “Tribal Complications: Any advance from India is complicated by the Tribal Areas which contain uncertain elements of riflemen, totalling some 50,000, who are well known for their warlike qualities and readiness to fight. In order to cope with this potentially dangerous threat in the rear, the sub-bases at Parachinar, Miram Shah, Wanna [corrected in red pencil to Wana] and Fort Sandeman would be necessary.”15
Other reports in this folder show problems that Enders encountered, some of which were of his own making, and others resulted when he needed to be confrontational. For example, on 20 October 1943 Enders drove in a two-car caravan to Kabul from Peshawar with Sir Aurel Stein, who was eighty-one and in poor health. Because of Stein’s advanced age and illness, Enders went on ahead with Stein and arrived in Kabul at 4:30 p.m. When the other car did not arrive by 6:00 p.m., he went back to look for it. The other car had mechanical problems, and needed assistance. His memo to the minister on 22 October gives the harrowing details of the trip to recover the other vehicle.16 Stein died on 26 October and was buried in Kabul. Another memorandum for the minister, this one on 4 November 1943, provides details of a trip by a two-car caravan to the border with India at Torkham, where “the Afghan soldiers attempted to stop the car by hanging onto the fenders.” He shook them off and drove on to Quetta.17
If Enders had the chance to talk about his plans for the trip, he would surely have discussed them, or even bragged about them, to Louis Dreyfus, the U.S. minister to Iran. Charles Thayer stayed with Dreyfus in Tehran on his way into Afghanistan, and Enders met him in Tehran to escort him to Kabul. Dreyfus would later be the host of the successful Tehran Conference of FDR, Churchill, and Stalin that took place while the trip to the NWFP province was under way. Dreyfus left Iran for his next post on 12 December, just before the trip ended. Dreyfus would return to Afghanistan as ambassador in April 1949.18
Enders arrived in Peshawar to meet the other
