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have left painfully acute the problem of uncertain expansion. 
Diplomatists, in despair, may plead that the problem is insol- 
uble, but it has perhaps been made even more so by hasty, 
artificial, and often selfish solutions intended to satisfy 
Western requirements rather than the legitimate aspirations 
of peoples earnestly feeling about in search of their true 
affinities. In every school, whether in Greece, Macedonia, 
Bulgaria, or Serbia, you will see on the walls maps displayed 
on which are shown the present frontier in one colour, and 
the frontier that ought to be the ideal frontier in another 
colour. Those maps eloquently set forth the great Balkan 
difficulty, and they also enable us to understand what a splen- 
did opportunity is thus afforded for the political intrigues 
which have created the position in the Balkans, Iwith which 
to-day the Allied Powers have to deal. 
Referring to the Albanians, the lecturer admitted their 
claim to be probably the oldest inhabitants of the Balkan 
Peninsula. The Albanian always is and remains an Albanian. 
Unlike the Serb or the Bulgar, who, having become a Moslem, 
often exhibits a fanaticism which even a Turk might envy, 
the Albanian never allows his nominal allegiance to Islam, 
if he be a Moslem, to interfere with the fact that he is an 
x'Ubanian. In fact, as has been often remarked, they seem 
to lack the religious sense. Christianity and Islam are 
political labels which have left practically untouched the 
old pagan beliefs and superstitions of that most ancient 
race. “ We Albanians,” once said one of their chiefs to a 
distinguished English traveller, “ we must have freedom ; 
we will profess any form of religion which leaves us free to 
carry a gun ; therefore the majority of us are Moslems.” 
But they are very lax Moslems, and their religious ideas are 
curiously mixed. Red eggs at Easter are, in some places, 
given amicably by Moslems to each other ; if verses from 
the Koran fail to cure an ailment, not having yet heard of 
Christian Science, they try a Christian relic or medal. Yet 
it must be acknowledged that the Albanians are a very 
intelligent people, and can adapt themselves to modern ways 
of life. They are excellent men of business. In Cettinje, 
the capital of Montenegro, more than half the trade is in 
their hands ; along the coast of Dalmatia, and on the shores 
of the Adriatic, even in Italy, Albanians are found success- 
fully engaged in commercial pursuits. All that seems to be 
required for those interesting people is education and good 
government in the place of the selfish political intrigues 
which, so far, have been their chief acquaintance with Western 
civilisation. 
