70 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE NEAR EAST PROBLEM. 



A New Complication. 

 M. Andre CufiRADAME, who contributes to the 

 Correspondanl of June 25 a paper on the Albanian 

 Question, shows how this difficulty is adding a new 

 complication to the thorny problem of the East. 



THE ALBANIAN QUESTION. 



The writer explains the circumstances which gave 

 birth to the national movement in Albania, he exposes 

 the perfidy of the Government in its dealings with the 

 province, and he shows how the question which is 

 only of four years' standing is on the point of assurning 

 an international character. Before the insurrections 

 of 1910 and 191 1 the Albanians of the different parts 

 of the country were seriously divided ; now they have 

 one common and positive ideal which they have forrnu- 

 lated into a demand for autonomy, a concession 

 diametrically opposed to the principles which govern 

 the Committee Union and Progress. 



CAUSES OF THE RISINGS. 



When the Revolution was an accomplished fact, the 

 more intelligent among the Albanians desirous of 

 profiting by the new regime founded an association 

 called Progress, with the object of organising education 

 in their country. The Young Turks, however, took 

 umbrage at the movement, and refused to recognise 

 the new league. At the same time the Government 

 revealed its intention of making the Albanians pay 

 taxes and furnish recruits. In a country without 

 commerce, industry, or works of public utility, this was 

 regarded as spoliation. A tax could only be considered 

 as the price of a service rendered by the State. The 

 .Mbanians of all denominations were stupefied at the 

 pretensions of the Government, and they declared they 

 would not submit to such humiliation and oppression. 

 The refusal to give the Albanians what they had been 

 led to expect, "and the attempt to impose on them 

 something of a very different character, have been the 

 essential causes of the conflicts which have broken out 

 in Albania every year since the Revolution. The expe- 

 ditions sent against them by the Government have 

 filled the hearts of the Albanians with hatred, and 

 caused to disappear any rivalries which may have 

 existed between the people of the North and those of 

 the South. Henceforth nationality, and not religion, 

 is the sole basis of the movement. 



AUSTRIAN INTERVENTION. 



A minimum programme of demands was drawn up, 

 but the Turks were obstinate, even in so trivial a 

 matter as the printing of the Albanian language in 

 Latin characters. Finally, however, they had to yield 

 on this point, .\fler having disarmed the Albanians, 

 the Turks then tried to regain their confidence by dis- 

 tributing arms for the defence of the frontier. The 

 Albanians had been calmed down, it was understood, 

 but at the moment an .-Mbanian noble was publishing 

 a pamphlet at Vienna setting forth the misdemeanours 



of the Turks in his country. In the spring of last year 

 came the great rising of the Mallissores. and another 

 expedition was sent ag-ainst them. The Mirdites of the 

 South joined the insurgents ; and in May a proclama- 

 tion containing their demands was addressed to the 

 people and to the Government. This was met by rein- 

 forcements on the part of the Turks, and the troops 

 systematically destroyed the dwellings and treated the 

 old people, w'omen, and children with no consideration. 

 This reign of terror, however, led to no decisive result, 

 and Austria announced that the tactics of the Turks 

 had been most stupid, and that she was going to 

 intervene. The Austrian Official Note produced a great 

 sensation at Constantinople and Berlin, yet Germany 

 continued to support the Young Turks. The Govern- 

 ment at Constantinople, to save its face, saw it must 

 stop military operations and promise reforms. In 

 August the Mallissores accepted the eleven conditions 

 offered by the Government, but the people of Southern 

 Albania being excluded from any of the benefits pro- 

 mised, the situation in all Albania remained much the 

 same after the peace with the North. 



AN APPEAL TO EUROPE. 



In 1912 the more notable among the Albanians 

 declared their intention to have nothing to do with 

 political parties or the Parliament at Constantinople. 

 Their antipathv to the Committee Union and Progress 

 is as great as to the Liberal Entente, and they will take 

 no part in the elections. The Turks, they maintain, 

 have done nothing for them. The roads they began in 

 certain parts are useless for commerce. They are only 

 strategic routes. Convinced that the Young 1 urks are 

 incapable of fulfilling a promise, the Albanians of 

 North and South are resolved to take their affairs into 

 their own hands and make an appeal to Europe. From 

 the first they have claimed autonomy, and now they 

 display a tendency for the separation, if necessary, of 

 Albania from the rest of the Empire. The Turks are in 

 an inextricable position. While there may be a possi- 

 bility of their quelling the rising by force at great cost, 

 it is' practically impossible for them to satisfy the 

 Albanians, since the minimum of demands of the latter 

 far exceeds the maximum of concessions which the 

 Turkish Government is willing to grant. 



The Albanian Question makes the position of Monte- 

 negro diflicult ; it causes anxiety in Servia and 

 Bulgaria ; and Italy and Austria-Hungary are also 

 interested in it. So far, the attitude of Germany has 

 been to drive Turkey to stifle Albanian particularism. 

 She has never missed an opportunity to incite the 

 Turks to act energetically against the insurgents and 

 to refuse anything tending to autonomy. Finally, the 

 Albanian Question, says the writer, is giving a new 

 force to the Macedonian Question, and possibly to tht 

 problem of Turkish rule in Europe, Undoubtedly 

 everything is indicating that we are advancing towards 

 a new phase of the dismemberment of the Ottoman 

 Empire, 



