Photo by Theron J. Damon 

 ALBANIAN CHIEFS FROM THE MOUNTAIN REGION NEAR SCUTARI 



carefully considered. By delicate hand- 

 ling, by the fulfillment of promises, and 

 by a just sympathy with the real aspira- 

 tions of an ignorant but potentially capa- 

 ble race, the Young Turks might have 

 built up and solidified in the province of 

 Albania an impregnable barrier against 

 European aggression. Instead of that 

 they have pursued a course which has 

 been aptly described by the Constanti- 

 nople correspondent of the London 

 Times as the steam-roller policy. Dis- 

 regarding advice from every competent 

 quarter, the Young Turks strove to flat- 

 ten out the Albanians to the level of the 

 ignorant Turkish peasants in the desert 

 plains of Asia Minor. Nothing could 

 have been more preposterous or more 

 certainly foredoomed to failure. 



Bodings of the inevitable result — a 

 non-Ottoman Albania — appeared in the 

 autumn of 1909, but it was not until the 

 spring of 1910 that a revolt assumed 

 serious proportions. On April 5 of that 

 year the Moslem Albanians of the north- 

 eastern corner of Albania along the rail- 

 road line took up arms against the gov- 

 ernment. For a few days the rebels 



held Kachanik Pass, but 50,000 Turkish 

 troops were immediately poured into the 

 region and the movement was smothered. 

 Never more than a local afl^air, it was 

 undertaken without any organization ; 

 Albania proper was scarcely concerned 

 by the uprising. 



The Young Turks thought, however, 

 that the time was come to teach the law- 

 less Albanians a much-needed lesson. 

 Accordingly the troops collected for the 

 suppression of the uprising were marched 

 throughout Albania. One division went 

 westward to Scutari, or Schodra, as it is 

 known to the Albanians. They traversed 

 mountain roads which for generations 

 had been closed to any man accompanied 

 by a Turkish soldier, for the Albanians 

 liked not the uniform of Turkish au- 

 thority. But now the mountain people, 

 taken by surprise, were to be disarmed. 

 After such a smothering as had been 

 meted out to their brethren along the 

 railroad line, outnumbered and opposed 

 by machine guns, which are a strange 

 terror to the simple Albanian, there was 

 no hope in resistance. Their arms — the 

 pride and oftentimes the sum of their 



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