The Europeans, who have found employment in the service of Afghanistan, have belonged to many trades. The majority, in some way or another associated with the Ordnance Department of the Amir’s Government, have supervised the different branches of the magnificent arsenal with which the late Amir equipped his capital. Lately, there have been difficulties over the fuel question, the great demands for fuel made by the works having caused a fuel famine in the Kabul district. Habib Ullah proposes to surmount this problem by developing certain coal deposits which have been located in Afghan Turkestan, and through an electric power installation for the workshops. Tentative attempts in this direction have been in hand since 1903, when the fuel bill was represented by eight lakhs of Kabuli rupees. Snider and Martini rifles; Hotchkiss, Gatling and field guns; swords, sabres and knives; ammunition; transport carts; bits, bridles and saddles; boots and uniforms, are all turned out from the Kabul works, twenty-five rifles per diem, two guns and 20,000 rounds of Martini ammunition per week being the estimated capacity of the factories. The workshops, the growth of the first fifteen years of Abdur Rahman’s reign, were due solely to the initiative of the late Amir, assisted by Sir Salter Pyne. This well-known engineer was personally responsible for their introduction, besides doing much to familiarise the Afghans with the mechanical implements and improvements of the West. As the result of these efforts the workshops now occupy an extensive range of buildings, situated outside the town on the banks of the Kabul river, where 1500 natives under the superintendence of 100 Hindu artificers, who have been trained in the factories and workshops of India, are daily employed. The mint where the plant possesses a possible output of 20,000 coins per day, the tanning yards, the candle factory where 100,000 candles can be turned out weekly, and the soap works where ten tons of soap can be made up in the same period, are all located in buildings adjoining the Ordnance compound.