Review of Eeviews, l/i/13. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



165 



southern Albania were two provinces of the 

 Byzantine Empire, and Nikopolis and 

 Durazzo were their respective capitals. 



The Albanians were later conquered 

 by the Bulgarians, and still later by the 

 Turks, After the Ottoman conquest of 

 Byzantium, 1453, the Albanian king- 

 dom was revived for a time by the 

 national hero, Skanderbeg. This worthy 

 abjured the Mohammedan faith and 

 declared himself a champion of Chris- 

 tianity. In 1478 Albania became sub- 

 ject to the Turkish Sultan, and has 

 so remained ever since, although in re- 

 cent years it has had a certain measure 

 of autonomy. The centralising schemes 

 of Sultan Mahmud II., in the early part 

 of the past century, aroused Albanian 

 patriotism. 



In 1878, after the Russo-Turkish War, the 

 Albanian.s formed a National League known 

 under the name of the League of Prizrond, 

 with tJie purpose of defending parts of their 

 territory gdven by the treaties of Sail Ste- 

 faiio and Berlin to Montenegro, Servia, Bul- 

 garia, and Greece. The whole of Albania ror 

 three years was ruled by this league, and 

 the territories which were assigned to 

 Greece and Montenegro wei-e saved to 

 Albania. 



According to Mr. Dako, the follow- 

 ing, despite claims to the contrary, are 

 accurate statistics as to the number of 

 Albanians and the extent of territory 

 populated by them : — - 



Until the middle age the Albanian nation 

 occupied all the countries which form the 

 Balkan Peninsula on the right side of the 

 Danube. Bat in the seventh century, when 

 the Servian and Bulgarian invasions took 

 place, the Albanians were driven westward 

 to the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Their 

 present territory extends from jNIontenegro 

 on the north to the Gulf of Arta on the 

 south, and embraces the following four vila- 

 yets of the Turkish Empire: Scutari, Kos- 

 eovo, Monastir and Janina. No census of 

 these 'has ever been taken, but the popula- 

 tion is close to 3,000, OIJO, with 8U0,U00 addi- 

 tional in southern Italy, 900,000 in Greece, 

 40,000 to 50,000 in America — not counting 

 those who emigrate from southern Italy and 

 Greece, but only those who emigrate from 

 Albania proper-— 30,000 in Roumania, and 

 several thousand in Egypt, Bulgaria and 

 Russia. The Albanians who live now in Italy 

 emigrated there after the Turks conquered 

 Albania, but they kept their own language 

 and social cu.stoms, and their own form of 

 ChristJanity. They recognise as their ro- 

 ligiou,s head the Pojie instead of the Greek 

 Patriarch at Constantinople. 



The feudal system still obtains in 

 Albania. To a great extent the Al- 

 banians still live a patriarchal life. 



Each tribe or clan has its own chief or 

 '• t)airakdar," and a council of elders, which 

 governs the tribe and to which they refer aU 

 quarrels and disputes. The decisions of the 

 elders are final. As each clan has its bairak- 

 der, so each family, which sometimes em- 

 braces from fifty to one hundred members 

 living under the same roof, has its leader, 

 the oldest member of the family, whose word 

 is absolute. Although the majority of the 

 Albanian.s nominally assumed the Moham- 

 medan faith, they have never become polyga- 

 mous, for they have a great respect for 

 woman liood and a deep love for home. In 

 Albania the woman is the head of the house, 

 the equal in all respects of her husband. 



This Albanian student regards the 

 question of the future fate of his people 

 as of great European importance. He 

 says on this point : — 



The significance of the Albanian in future 

 European politics, in European political and 

 economical development, cannot be overesti- 

 mated, while the infiuence upon the conti- 

 nent at large of the restoration of the Chris- 

 tian faith at this strategic iJoint will change 

 the entire course of events east of European 

 Turkey. Turkey, by granting certain de- 

 mands made by the Albanian Nationalist 

 Committee in 1911 and early in 1912, made 

 thd national existence of Albania a possi- 

 bility, and this development meant a deadly 

 l)low to the furthering of the plans matur- 

 ing in the several Balkan states. Hence 

 their hurried alliance with the real view 

 of crushing Albania before the Albanian 

 people are fully prepared to check any at- 

 tempt against the fatherland. The real 

 cause of the present war is this : Greece 

 wants southern Alliania, Montenegro wants 

 north-western Albania, Servia want.s the 

 same territory, and Bulgaria wants Mace- 

 donia and a part of eastern Albania. 



The native Albanians themselves 

 " take no stock ' in the interest that Bul- 

 garians, Servians, Greeks, and Monte- 

 negrins are showing in the autonomy of 

 Albania and Macedonia, and old Ser- 

 via. They insist that the real aim of 

 the Balkan states is the securing of 

 greater territory. The Albanian nation- 

 alists have a programme which calls 

 for the making of the four vila)'ets of 

 Janina, Monastir, Scutari, and Kossovo 

 into one vilayet, to be known as the Al- 

 banian vilayet, with absolute educa- 

 tional and religious liberty. 



On Thursday, November jSth, there 

 assemljled at Yalona the first meeting of 

 the new Albanian Chamber of Deputies, 

 composftd of eighty-one Christian and 

 Moslem Albanians, who chose Ismail 

 Kemal Provisional President, and Louis 

 Gurakuqui Provisional Secretary. The 

 conclave proiMainied independence. 



