ssert that
from the point of view of economic arrangement everything has to be
created. This necessitates a Government which knows how to administer
and which has funds at its command. But there is not the least
likelihood of regular taxes being paid to a central Government until you
have security of communication. And even then the native--except if
force is used--will not pay before he sees the benefit which taxes
produce. He who for the most part has never given obedience save to his
village chief will require to see the local benefit. Therefore his whole
outlook must be changed; slowly from being parochial it must become
national.... There can be no greater folly than at this stage to aim at
applying modern usages, equality of taxation, uniformity of judicial
organization, and so forth. It must be a very slow advance, says M.
Jaray, taking local traditions and the feudalism, both domestic and
collective, into account. Even if a central Government had all the
necessary qualifications, yet that would not cause the people to regard
it with gratitude and loyalty. It is too remote. The clans have been
accustomed to look no farther than their own chiefs. Only in serious
circumstances and against an invasion have they united and chosen a
common leader. To expect the Albanians rapidly to throw aside their
clannishness is to prepare for oneself a disappointment. It is in the
clan that they must be made fit for something more extensive. Let the
country be recognized not as a nation, but as a collection of clans, and
let these clans, with any outside assistance they themselves may choose,
come gradually to understand the word "Albania." ... And what are the
chances that this will come to pass? No country is more feudal; yet only
the most thoroughgoing peasant reforms will lay a sure foundation for
the State.

(_b_) THE GREEK FRONTIER

The frontier with Greece has undergone no alteration as a result of the
War. It is inconvenient in certain details; it runs, for example, at
such a very short distance to the south of the town of Ghevgeli that the
prefect has little chance of frustrating those who actively object to
the payment of import duties. Rather a large number of Slavs, some say
300,000, live on the Greek side of the frontier, while a far smaller
number of Greeks live in Monastir. Both the Slavs and the Greeks have
made sundry complaints, which are more or less justified, against the
alien authority which governs them.