I'huto h- I., lima ( .. t, iiMiiinnu- 



A GROUP OF MONTENEGRINS ON THE MAIN STREET OE CETTINJE, THE CAPITAL 01^ 



MONTENEGRO 



land. The Albanian fears, likewise, a 

 European conference in his regard, lest 

 Montenegro and Greece should be al- 

 lowed to aggrandize themselves at the ex- 

 pense of Albania. The ideal alternative 

 for which he longs is a well-governed 

 Turkey of which he will be one of the 

 bulwarks. 



Generations of Turkish overlordship 

 have taught him, however, that he may 

 not expect justice from the Turks. The 

 revolution of July, 1908, gave a mo- 

 mentary gleam of hope, but the blackness 

 of despair immediately settled down, 

 blacker than before. The bastinado, the 

 bullet, and the prison-cell have been the 

 only reward for the craving for "some- 

 thing better." It is true that the Alba- 

 nians who had been neglected for cen- 

 turies were not ready to take kindly to 

 some of the provisions of "Constitutional- 

 ism." The ignorant peasant, never hav- 

 ing paid taxes and never having been 

 drafted for military service, did not ap- 

 preciate the new "equality," which be- 

 ^came manifest to him in the payment of 



taxes like all the other inhabitants of 

 Turkey and in the contribution of his 

 quota of martyrs on the torrid sands of 

 the Yemen. 



The Albanians had many things to 

 learn. The instruction should and could 

 have come through their already enlight- 

 ened leaders. 



But the stupid Turk did the only thing 

 he knew how to do — he marched his 

 armies into Albania. Thereby, instead 

 of utilizing the possibilities of enthusi- 

 astic loyalty, he more firmly rooted the 

 age-long feeling of distrust and hate. 



Speculation as to the future of Al- 

 bania only leads one into impenetrable 

 mazes, for the Albanian problem is bound 

 up with the solution of the far-reaching 

 Eastern Question, that teaser of Europe 

 through the generations. The Crimean 

 War was fought to solve it, but in more 

 intricate form it rose again in the Russo- 

 Turkish War of 1877-1878. The man- 

 dataries of Europe at Berlin in 1878 

 bungled the now obsolete Treaty of Ber- 

 lin. Is it too much to hope that since that 



