ok the necessary steps: many of the Catholic priests
had been in Austria's pay, and these now became the pensioners of Italy.
Monsignor Sereggi, the Metropolitan, used to be anti-Turk but, as was
evident when in 1911 he negotiated with Montenegro, he is not personally
anti-Slav. Yet he must have money for his clergy, for his seminary, and
so forth. His friendship would be easily, one fancies, transferred from
Rome to Belgrade if the Serbs are willing to provide the cash--and
nobody can blame him. Leo Freund, who had been Vienna's secret agent and
a great friend of Monsignor Bumci, the Albanian bishop, was succeeded by
an Italian. But, of course, the new almoner did not confine his gifts to
those of his own faith. Many of the leading Moslems were in receipt of a
monthly salary, and this was not so serious a burden for the Italians
as one might suppose, since Albania is a poor country, and with no
Austrian competition you found quite prominent personages deigning to
accept a rather miserable wage. "And do you think," I asked of Musa
Yuka, the courteous mayor of Scutari, "that those mountain tribes are
being paid?" "Well," he said, "I think that it is not improbable." ...
At the time of the Bosnian annexation crisis the Serbs had as their
Minister of Finance the sagacious Patchou. The War Minister, a General,
was strongly in favour of an instant declaration of war, and the Premier
suggested that the matter should be discussed. He turned to the Minister
of Finance and asked him whether he had sufficient money for such an
undertaking. Patchou shook his head. "But our men are patriots! They
will go without bread, they will go without everything!" exclaimed the
General. "The horses and mules are not patriots," said Patchou, "and if
you want them to march you'll have to feed them." The Albanians were so
little inclined to go to war with Yugoslavia that the Italians had, in
various ways, to feed them nearly all. And what did the Albanians think
of these intrigues? At any rate, what did they say? "Italy," quoth
Professor Chimigo,[75] a prominent Albanian who teaches at Bologna,
"Italy is always respected and esteemed as a great nation.... The
Albanian Government," said he, "has charged me to declare in public that
Albania does not regard herself as victorious against Italy, but is
convinced that the Italians, in withdrawing their troops from Valona,
were obeying a sentiment of goodness and generosity." Such words would
be likely to