n if you had the
necessary documents I could only let you go if precautions were taken to
guard you. I am sorry,' said I, 'that you should have spoken as you have
done against the Serbs; in fact, it seems to me that you are doing a
disservice to England, and that here in this village I am serving her
more truly.' 'I decline to go to Pe['c],' said Brodie; 'I want to go to
Scutari.' 'You must go to Pe['c],' said I. He said that I could
telephone concerning him either to the Belgrade Government or to the
General at Cetinje. 'Unfortunately,' said I, 'it is these people who are
with you who cut the telephone wires two days ago.' After this I
appointed a guard for him. I gave him my room, with soldiers to serve
him, to keep the room warm and bring him whatever food we had. [Observe
that the above-mentioned Captain Willett Cunnington wrote in the _New
Statesman_ that Brodie was treated with "gross indignity."] 'Three
horses were got ready,' said Ra[vc]i['c] in conclusion, 'and on these
they rode to Pe['c], accompanied by a guard, both to prevent them from
escaping and from coming to harm.'"[87]

In its old Albanian days the village of Gusinje was perhaps the most
inaccessible spot in Europe--it was rarely possible for anyone to obtain
permission to approach it. Even to Miss Durham, friend of the
Albanians, this people sent a decided refusal. But now, under the
guidance of the Yugoslav authorities, they have abandoned these boorish
ways; Miss Durham could go there at any time, but maybe the village no
longer attracts her.

8. A DIGRESSION ON TWO RIVAL ALBANIAN AUTHORITIES

[We have more than once alluded to the writings of Miss Durham, since
very few British authors have dealt with Albania, and she has come to be
regarded as a trustworthy expert. But the flagrant partiality of her
latest book (_Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle_; London, 1920), which,
moreover, is written with great bitterness, will make the public turn, I
hope, to Sir Charles Eliot, who is a vastly better cicerone. The present
ambassador in Japan is, of course, one of the foremost men of this
generation. His Balkan studies are as supremely competent as his
monumental work on British Nudibranchiate Mollusca, published by the Ray
Society when Sir Charles, having resigned the Governorship of East
Africa, was Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University. Equally admired are
his researches into Chinese linguistics and his monograph, the first in
the language, on that m