In early February 1919 Britain’s wartime prime minister David Lloyd George perused an intriguing letter addressed to him personally by an Afghan residing in Edinburgh. The mysterious correspondent launched himself as an aristocrat from the outskirts of Kabul by the identify of Ikbal Ali Shah. His household had lengthy supported Britain, he continued, and, being fluent in 4 Muslim languages, he had uncovered Germany’s secret designs in Central Asia. However now the battle was over, he went on, it was the Bolsheviks who must be Britain’s greatest concern. On the Afghan border with India – that the majority weak nook of the empire – Russian Bolsheviks have been plotting to export their revolution by the Khyber Go. Having waved this warning flag, Ikbal Ali Shah got here to the aim of his letter: to supply the prime minister his ‘humble providers in reference to propaganda work’.