What of the population which inhabits the zone between the two frontier
lines? We have alluded to them as a horde of bandits, we have also
spoken of the six battalions which they placed at the disposal of the
Yugoslavs. If it is true that a poet has died in the bosom of most of
us, it is equally true that in most of the Albanians a brigand survives.
And if not a brigand, then a mediaeval person with characteristics which
are more pleasant to read about than to encounter. Yet the Shqyptar, as
he calls himself (which means the eagle's son) is not without his
aspirations. Reference has been made to those northern tribes, such as
the Merturi and the Gashi, who benefited from the small Serbian
detachments which came in answer to their urgent wish. And on the Black
Drin the six battalions have shown their fidelity. There would be no
need to guard oneself against such people. But unfortunately the
Albanian is so constituted that if, in a hamlet of ten houses, five of
them are amicably disposed towards you, there is a strong tendency among
the others to be hostile. When these torch-bearers of an ancient
tradition come under the rule of an organized State, then they gradually
feel inclined to discard some of their customs which the State frowns
upon. This can be seen in the changes among the people of Kossovo since
it came into Serbian hands. Were the country between the two frontier
lines to remain under the Serbs it would not be long before some of the
time-honoured sensitiveness of the Albanians towards each other and
towards each others' friends would vanish--though it has been found that
it takes a number of years before they cease observing or from desiring
to observe the very deeply-rooted custom of blood-vengeance.
A good many of the border Albanians have made it clear that they wish
for some sort of association with their more cultured neighbours. But on
this point they are by no means unanimous. The unregenerate part of the
people will not be able to resist an occasional foray into Yugoslavia.
And although the reputation which the Serbs have left behind them may
induce the tribes to be, for the most part, good neighbours, yet they
have not been long enough under the civilizing process, and the more
advanced among them would agree with the Yugoslavs that it would have
been better for that regime to have continued over them. You may object
that the finest patriots of the Albanians would have preferred to remain
outside Yugoslavia. But they know that there are many thousands of their
contented countryfolk in the neighbouring Kossovo and, what is more,
they know that the towns of Kossovo are their markets.
The Yugoslavs have bowed to the decision of their Allies. And the
official champions of the too-ambitious League of Nations--overjoyed,
after various failures and after the Silesian award, to have really
accomplished something, and something with whose merits the public was
far less familiar than with the Silesian fiasco--performed a war-dance
on the Yugoslavs. If that people had been as obstinate, say, as the
Magyars in the case of Burgenland, no doubt it would have come to
another Conference of Venice; and Yugoslavia would, like Hungary, have
returned from there with something gained. But, of course, when it is an
affair between Allies one scarcely likes to behave in that stubborn and
unyielding manner which is apparently the right--at all events, the
successful--conduct for a whilom foe. If the Yugoslavs, in simply
accepting the judgment of their Allies, acted against their own ultimate
advantage, they can, at any rate, believe that their complaisance, their
extraordinary lack of chauvinism, will be recognized. It is true that
when, on former occasions, such as during the prolonged d'Annunzio farce
at Rieka, they displayed a similar and wonderful forbearance, they did
not manage to free themselves from this foolish charge. There happen to
be a good many people abroad who insist that the new States are, every
one of them, chauvinist; they think it is the natural thing for a young
country to be, and especially if part of it lies in the Balkans. But if
Yugoslavia repeatedly acts in the most correct fashion the day may come
when she will be able to put a lasting polish on to the reputation which
her Allies have tarnished.