In 1913, after the Balkan War, the flags of the Powers were hoisted at
Scutari, and a frontier dividing the Albanians from the Yugoslavs
(Montenegrins and Serbs) was indicated by Austria and traced at the
London Conference. This boundary was still awaiting its final
demarcation by commissioners on the spot when the European War broke
out. Then in the second year of the War disturbances were organized by
the Austrians in Albania--their friend the miscreant ruler of Montenegro
caused money to be sent for this purpose to the Austro-Hungarian Consul
at Scutari--and in April and May of that year the Serbs were authorized
by their Allies to protect themselves by occupying certain portions of
the country. Various battles took place between those Albanians who were
partisans of Austria and those who were disinclined to attack the Serbs
in the rear. The Serbian Government opposed the Austrian propaganda by
dispatching to that region the Montenegrin Pouni[vs]a Ra[vc]i['c], of
whom we have much to say. He was accompanied by Smajo Ferovi['c], a
Moslem sergeant of komitadjis. They explained to the Albanians that the
Serbs had been offered a separate peace with numerous concessions, but
that Mr. Pa[vs]i['c] had refused to treat. When the two Albanian parties
discussed the situation by shooting at each other, the Austro-Hungarian
officers made tracks for Kotor, and that particular intrigue came to an
end.
When the War was over, the Serbs, sweeping up from Macedonia, were
requested by General Franchet d'Esperey to undertake a task which the
Italians refused, and push the demoralized Austrian troops out of
Albania. Some weeks after this had been accomplished, the Italians,
mindful of the Treaty of London, demanded that a large part of Albania
should be given up to their administration. The Serbs agreed and
withdrew; they even took away their representative from Scutari, where
the Allies had again installed themselves. The Treaty of London bestowed
upon the Serbs a sphere of influence in northern Albania, but--save for
a few misguided politicians--they were logical enough to reject the
whole of the pernicious Treaty, both the clauses which robbed them in
Dalmatia and those which in Albania gave them stolen goods. Over and
over again did the Yugoslav delegates declare in Paris that it was their
wish to see established an independent Albania with the frontiers of
1913. These, the first frontiers which the Albanians had ever possessed,
were laid down by Austria with the express purpose of thwarting the
Serbs and facilitating Albanian raids. It is true that several towns
with large Albanian majorities were made over to the Serbs--very much,
as it turned out, to their subsequent advantage--yet, being separated
from their hinterland, this was a doubtful gift. Nevertheless, if a free
and united Albania could be constituted the Serbs were ready to accept
this frontier, and even Monsieur Justin Godart, the strenuous French
Albanophile of whom we speak elsewhere, cannot deny that this attitude
of the Yugoslavs redounds very much to their honour. But before relative
tranquillity reigns among the Albanians it is, as General Franchet
d'Esperey perceived in 1918, an untenable line. He, therefore, drew a
temporary frontier which permitted the Serbs to advance for some miles
into Albania, so that on the river Drin or on the mountain summits they
might ward off attacks. These, by the way, had their origin far more in
the border population's empty stomachs than in their animus against the
Slavs. And nobody with knowledge of this people could regard the 1918
frontier as unnecessary. The Albanians were themselves so much inclined
to acquiesce that one must ask why, in the months which followed, there
was a considerable amount of border fighting. What was it that caused
the Albanians in the region of Scutari to make their violent onslaughts
of December 1919 and January 1920, the renewed offensive of July 1920 at
the same places--after which the Albanian Government forwarded to that
of Belgrade an assurance of goodwill--and the organized thrust of August
13 against Dibra, which was preceded on August 10 by a manifesto to the
chancelleries of Europe falsely accusing the Serbs of having begun these
operations, and which was followed by the Tirana Government promising to
try to find the guilty persons? The 19th of the same month saw the
Albanians delivering a further attack in the neighbourhood of Scutari,
and then the Yugoslav Government decided that their army must occupy
such defensive positions as would put a stop to these everlasting
incidents. But a voice was whispering to the Albanians that they must
not allow themselves to be so easily coerced. "You have thrown us out of
all the land behind Valona," said the voice, "and out of Valona itself.
You must, therefore, be the greatest warriors in the world, and we will
be charmed to provide you with rifles and machine guns and munitions
and uniforms and cash. We will gladly publish to the world that your
Delegation at Rome has sent us an official Note demanding that the
Yugoslav troops should retire to the 1913 line, pure and simple. Of
course we, like the other Allies, agreed that they should occupy the
more advanced positions which General Franchet d'Esperey assigned to
them--and to show you how truly sorry we are for having done so, we
propose to send you all the help you need. In dealing with us you will
find that you have to do with honourable men, whereas the
Yugoslavs--what are they but Yugoslavs?"
Anyone who travelled about this time along the road from Scutari down to
the port of San Giovanni di Medua would inevitably meet with processions
of ancient cabs, ox-wagons and what not, laden with all kinds of
military equipment. Some of these supplies had come direct from Italy,
while others had been seized from the Italians near Valona. The
detachment of Italian soldiers at San Giovanni, and the much larger
detachment at Scutari, may have looked with mixed feelings at some of
these commodities, but on the other hand they may have thought, with
General Bencivenga,[74] that it was good business--"_un buon
affare_"--in exchange for Valona to obtain a solid and secure friendship
with the Albanians. Roads, as he pointed out, lead from Albania to the
heart of Serbia, and for that reason a true brotherhood of arms between
Italians and Albanians was, in case of hostilities, enormously to be
desired. And so the Italians stationed at Scutari, under Captain
Pericone of the Navy, may have felt that it was well that all those
cannon captured from their countrymen were in such a good condition.
They would now be turned by the Albanians against the hateful Yugoslavs.
["Italy is the one Power in Europe," says her advocate, Mr. H. E. Goad,
in the _Fortnightly Review_ (May 1922), "that is most obviously and most
consistently working for peace and conciliation in every field."] ... A
further supply of military material is said to have reached the
Albanians from Gabriele d'Annunzio in the S.S. _Knin_. To the Irish, the
Egyptians and the Turks the poet-filibuster had merely sent greetings.
Some one may have told him that even the most lyrical greeting would
not be valued by the Albanians half as much as a shipload of munitions.
For a considerable time the more intelligent Italians had noticed that
these two Balkan peoples were disposed to live in amicable terms with
one another. Traditions that are so powerful with an illiterate
people--under five per thousand of the Albanians who have stayed in
their own country can read and write--numerous traditions speak of
friendship with the Serbs: Lek, the great legislator, was related to
Serbian princes; Skanderbeg was an ally of the Serbs; "Most of the
celebrated leaders of northern Albania and Montenegro," says Miss
Durham, "seem to have been of mixed Serbian-Albanian blood"; Mustapha
Vezir Bushatli strove together with Prince Milo[vs] against the Turks,
and the same cause united the Serbian authorities to the famous Vezir
Mahmud Begovi['c] of Pe['c]. A primitive people like the Albanians
admire the warlike attributes beyond all others, and the exploits of the
Serbian army in the European War inclined the hearts of the Albanians
towards their neighbours. Some of them remembered at this juncture that
their great-grandfathers or grandfathers had only become Albanian after
having accepted the Muhammedan religion; now the old ikons were taken
from their hiding-places. And there was, in fact, between the two Balkan
people a spirit of cordiality which gave terrible umbrage to the
Italians. So they took the necessary steps: many of the Catholic priests
had been in Austria's pay, and these now became the pensioners of Italy.
Monsignor Sereggi, the Metropolitan, used to be anti-Turk but, as was
evident when in 1911 he negotiated with Montenegro, he is not personally
anti-Slav. Yet he must have money for his clergy, for his seminary, and
so forth. His friendship would be easily, one fancies, transferred from
Rome to Belgrade if the Serbs are willing to provide the cash--and
nobody can blame him. Leo Freund, who had been Vienna's secret agent and
a great friend of Monsignor Bumci, the Albanian bishop, was succeeded by
an Italian. But, of course, the new almoner did not confine his gifts to
those of his own faith. Many of the leading Moslems were in receipt of a
monthly salary, and this was not so serious a burden for the Italians
as one might suppose, since Albania is a poor country, and with no
Austrian competition you found quite prominent personages deigning to
accept a rather miserable wage. "And do you think," I asked of Musa
Yuka, the courteous mayor of Scutari, "that those mountain tribes are
being paid?" "Well," he said, "I think that it is not improbable." ...
At the time of the Bosnian annexation crisis the Serbs had as their
Minister of Finance the sagacious Patchou. The War Minister, a General,
was strongly in favour of an instant declaration of war, and the Premier
suggested that the matter should be discussed. He turned to the Minister
of Finance and asked him whether he had sufficient money for such an
undertaking. Patchou shook his head. "But our men are patriots! They
will go without bread, they will go without everything!" exclaimed the
General. "The horses and mules are not patriots," said Patchou, "and if
you want them to march you'll have to feed them." The Albanians were so
little inclined to go to war with Yugoslavia that the Italians had, in
various ways, to feed them nearly all. And what did the Albanians think
of these intrigues? At any rate, what did they say? "Italy," quoth
Professor Chimigo,[75] a prominent Albanian who teaches at Bologna,
"Italy is always respected and esteemed as a great nation.... The
Albanian Government," said he, "has charged me to declare in public that
Albania does not regard herself as victorious against Italy, but is
convinced that the Italians, in withdrawing their troops from Valona,
were obeying a sentiment of goodness and generosity." Such words would
be likely to bring more plentiful supplies from Rome. And fortunately
the Italians did not seem to suffer, like the Serbs, from any scruples
as to the propriety of taking active steps against another "Allied and
Associated Power." When Zena Beg Riza Beg of Djakovica came in the year
1919 to his brother-in-law Ahmed Beg Mati, one of the Albanian leaders,
he told him that the Belgrade Government, in pursuance of their policy
"The Balkans for the Balkan peoples," would be glad if the Italians
could be ousted from Albania. Zena Beg returned with a request for
money, guns and so forth; but they were not sent.
Ahmed Beg and Zena Beg are patriotic young Albanian noblemen of ancient
family and great possessions. But Zena Beg has the advantage of living
in Yugoslavia, outside the atmosphere of corruption which is darkening
his native land. Ahmed Beg, who in 1920 was Minister of the Interior,
Minister of War, Governor of Scutari and Director (in mufti) of the
military operations against the Yugoslavs, did not accept Italian
bribes, but he was surrounded by those who did, and thus the gentle and
industrious young man was being led to work against his own country's
interests. With him at Scutari was another of the six Ministers of the
Tirana Government, in the person of the venerable Moslem priest Kadri,
Minister of Justice, and one of the four Regents, Monsignor Bumci. There
was about it all an Oriental odour of the less desirable kind, which
caused some observers to say that when Albania obtains her independence
she will be a bad imitation of the old Turkey--a little Turkey without
the external graces. When the thoughtful greybeard Kadri went limping
down the main street, a protecting gendarme dawdled behind him, smoking
a cigarette; but this endearing nonchalance was absent from the methods
of government: any Albanian whose opinions did not coincide with those
of the authorities could only express them at his peril. [Blood-vengeance
is, to some extent, being deposed by party-vengeance--this having
originated in the time of Wied, when the politicians were divided into
Nationalists and Essadists, after which they became Italophils and
Austrophils, who now have been succeeded by Italophils (who ask for an
Italian mandate) and Serbophils and Grecophils (who desire that these
countries should have no mandate, but should act in a friendly spirit
towards an independent Albania). Meanwhile the Italophils, nearly all of
them on Italy's pay-roll, were, till a few months ago, in the ascendant,
and their attitude towards the other party was relentless.] One Alush
Ljocha, for example, said that he thought it would be well if Yugoslavia
and Albania lived on friendly terms with one another. Because of this--the
Government having adopted other ideas--his house at Scutari was
burned,[76] and when we were discussing the matter at the palace of the
Metropolitan, Monsignor Sereggi, I found that His Grace was emphatically in
accord with a fiery Franciscan poet, Father Fichta, with the more placid
Monsignor Bumci, and with two other ecclesiastics who were present. "We did
well to burn his house, very well, I say!" exclaimed Father Fichta,
"because Alush is only a private person and he has no business to concern
himself with foreign countries." Of course, when Father Fichta made his
comments on foreign countries it was not as a private person but as a
responsible editor. Thus in the _Posta e Shqypnis_ during the War he
denounced Clemenceau and Lloyd George as such foes of humanity that their
proper destination was a cage of wild beasts, and, after having visited
France during 1919 as secretary to the sincere and credulous Bumci, he
contributed anti-French and, I believe, anti-English poems to the _Epopea
Shqyptare_.
"I have been told," I said, "by an intelligent Albanian who was educated
at Robert College at Constantinople that the greatest hope for the
country lies, in his opinion, in the increase of American schools, such
as that one at Elbasan and the admirable institution at Samakoff in
Bulgaria, where the Americans--in order not to be accused of
proselytism--teach everything except religion."
"If I had my own way," cried Fichta, "I would shut up these irreligious
American schools. Religion is the base of the social life of this
country."
"And you and the Muhammedans," I asked, "do you think that your
co-operation has a good prospect of enduring? With a country of no more
than one and a half million inhabitants it is essential that you should
be united."
"God in Heaven! Who can tolerate such things?" exclaimed the
Metropolitan. That very corpulent old gentleman was bouncing with rage
on his sofa. "Is it not horrible," he cried in Italian, "that this man
should dare to come to my house and make propaganda against us?"
"Really, sir, I am astonished," said Monsignor Bumci, reproachfully, in
French, "that you should ask such a question." [It was answered a few
weeks later, when Halim Beg Derala and Zena Beg--who, being outside
Albania, were free to utter non-Governmental opinions--said that they
had not the slightest doubt but that the friendship between the fanatic
Moslem and the fanatic Catholic would come to an end and each of them
would again in the first place think of his religion, so that, as
heretofore, they would regard themselves as Turkish and Latin people
rather than as Albanian. This foible does not apply to the Orthodox
Albanians of the South, who are more patriotic.] "I am astonished," said
the Monsignor, "that you should question our friendship with the Moslem.
They have been the domineering party, but all that is finished, and we
are the best of friends. See, they have chosen me to be one of the
Regents![77] Our Government of all the three religions is very good,
and," said he, as he thumped the arm of his chair, "it insists on the
Albanians obtaining justice in spite of our enemies."
It chanced that I had met Father Achikou, Doctor of Theology and
Philosophy, in the Franciscan church. Because his brother had had
occasion to kill an editor in self-defence, this, perhaps the most
enlightened, member of the Albanian Catholic clergy, had been compelled
to remain for eight months in the church and its precincts, seeing that
the Government was powerless to guarantee that he would not be overtaken
by that national curse, the blood-vengeance.
"Well, one cannot praise the custom of blood-vengeance," said the
Monsignor.
"You spoke," I said, "of your Government insisting on justice for the
Albanians."
And some time after this Professor Achikou and another prominent young
priest were deported to Italy and, I believe, interned in that
country.... With their fate we may compare that of Dom Ndoc Nikai, a
priest whose anti-Slav paper, the _Bessa Shqyptare_, is alleged to
exist on its Italian subsidy, and Father Paul Doday, whom Italy insisted
on installing as Provincial of all the Franciscans (after vetoing at
Rome the appointment of Father Vincent Prennushi, whom nearly all the
Franciscans in Albania had voted for). Father Doday, it is interesting
to note, is of Slav nationality, for he comes from Janjevo in Kossovo,
but he studied in Italy, and has abandoned the ways of his ancestors.
This town of some 500 houses, inhabited by Slavs from Dalmatia and a few
Saxons who are now entirely Slavicized, still retains a costume that
resembles the Dalmatian, as also a rather defective Dalmatian dialect.
The Austrians for thirty years endeavoured to Albanize them, but the
people resisted this and boycotted the church and school. The priest
Lazar, who defended their Slav national conscience, was persecuted and
forced to flee to Serbia--he is now Mayor of Janjevo. It usually
happened, by the way, that the priests of this Catholic town came from
Dalmatia; but the Slav idea could bridge over the difference between
Catholicism and Orthodoxy, so that if no Catholic priest was available
his place would be taken by an Orthodox priest from a neighbouring
village. Only a few of the natives are anti-nationalists, having been
brought up, like Father Doday, in some Italian or Austrian seminary.
There are in Albania to-day about ten such priests who come from
Janjevo.... How well this Father Doday has served his masters may be
seen in the case of the Franciscan priest in Shala, who, with the whole
population of armed Catholics, resisted the Italian advance of 1920.
Together with Lieut. Lek Marashi he organized komitadjis in Shala and
elsewhere, his purpose being to liberate his country from the Italians.
Since these latter could do nothing else against him they compelled the
Bishop of Pulati to punish him; however, all that the Bishop did was to
tell the patriot priest to go away. But Father Doday was more willing to
work for the Italians; he excommunicated his fellow-countryman, on the
ground that he would not come to Scutari, where his life would have been
in danger.