Albanian
enterprise "the strength and riches which they largely owed to the
Allied and Associated Powers." I was under the impression that the Serbs
had expended a far greater proportion of their strength and riches than
any of the Allies,[105] that the Allies had, in 1915, left them in the
lurch, and that the final success on the Macedonian front was due quite
considerably to the genius of Marshal Mi[vs]i['c] and the valour of his
veterans. As for the strength and riches which the Southern Slavs
possessed in 1921, it surely would not need an expert to perceive what
the Southern Slav children knew very well, namely, that they could be
more profitably employed in many other directions. May better luck
attend the future labours of these Members of Parliament.... A week or
so before the publication of this foolish manifesto there had been
issued an equally deplorable Memorandum by the Balkan Committee (of
London), which, I am glad to say, caused Dr. Seton-Watson to resign from
that body. This jejune and impudent Memorandum attempted to dictate the
terms of the Constitution of the Triune Kingdom--an attempt very rightly
reprobated by _The Near East_.[106] If the Yugoslav Government were to
adopt the recommendations of the Balkan Committee they would, it seems,
be in a fair way to solve the Albanian question. Likewise that of
Macedonia--when will the Committee cease to trouble Macedonia? Their
object, in the words of Mr. Noel Buxton, is to aim at allaying the
unrest in the Balkans; it would--I say it in all kindliness--be a move
in that direction if the other members were to follow Dr. Seton-Watson's
example.

14. THE REGION FROM WHICH THE YUGOSLAVS HAVE RETIRED

What of the population which inhabits the zone between the two frontier
lines? We have alluded to them as a horde of bandits, we have also
spoken of the six battalions which they placed at the disposal of the
Yugoslavs. If it is true that a poet has died in the bosom of most of
us, it is equally true that in most of the Albanians a brigand survives.
And if not a brigand, then a mediaeval person with characteristics which
are more pleasant to read about than to encounter. Yet the Shqyptar, as
he calls himself (which means the eagle's son) is not without his
aspirations. Reference has been made to those northern tribes, such as
the Merturi and the Gashi, who benefited from the small Serbian
detachments which came in answer to their urgent wish. And on the Black
Dr