, shall be refused
admittance into the Albanian Administration until two years after his
return. This is a proposal but not yet, I believe, an effective law.)
The Minister of Justice has been old Hodja Kadri, and the Minister of
War one Salah el Din Bey, an officer of Kemal Pasha, and neither of
these was acquainted with the Albanian language. When the Mirditi
started to show their dislike of this Government, the War Minister
commanded his troops to slay without mercy anyone who dared to raise his
voice. Thus it came about that the villages of Oroshi, Laci, Gomsice and
Naraci were destroyed, while those of the inhabitants who could escape
fled across the frontier to Serbia. As for particular cases of iniquity
we may instance that of the Moslem officer, Chakir Nizami, who, as a
manifestation of his hatred for the Christians, had violated at Scutari
a girl of fourteen whose name was Chakya Hil Paloks. He was sentenced by
the French military authorities and was liberated by the Minister of
Justice as soon as the French had quitted Scutari. On the other hand,
Kol Achikou, a brother of the delegate, had killed a Moslem in
self-defence and been acquitted by the French court martial; after their
departure he was taken to Tirana and sentenced to death. But apart from
all such misdeeds the Mirditi complained that the Tirana Government,
which could not openly wage war with Serbia, had organized the "Kossovo"
Committee, whose object it was to foment trouble in Serbia and to send
armed bands of marauders on to Serbian territory. At the very moment
when the delegation was at Geneva, one of these bands (in the night
between October 12 and 13) raided the village of Moji[vs]te, near
Gostivar. Furnished with Italian machine guns and bombs they came over
the mountains, set fire to the village and killed many of the people as
they fled. They are accustomed on such expeditions to steal the children
and hold them to ransom--a lucrative operation which d'Annunzio's
arditi[91] may have copied from their Albanian colleagues. It would
seem, then, according to the statement of the Mirditi, that in the
conflict on the Black Drin, of which Europe had vaguely heard, the
Tirana Government and not that of Serbia was the aggressor. Mr. Aubrey
Herbert may write pathetic letters to the Press, Miss Durham may write
letters of indignation, but how could their proteges of Tirana be said
to be valiantly defending themselves against the wicked Serbs when the