Committee did not run contraband rifles, but they have never
believed it.

The Albanians everywhere asked me to assure Lord Lansdowne, then
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, that if he would only supply them
with as much money and as many arms as he had given the Bulgarians
they would undertake to make a really successful rising.

As for our Albanian testaments, Moslems as well as Christians bought
them; and the book of Genesis, with the tale of Potiphar's wife,
sold like hot cakes.

At Berat, where there was a Greek Consul and a Turkish Kaimmakam, we
were stopped by the police at the entrance of the town and all our
Albanian books were taken from us. But no objection was made to
those in Turkish and Greek. It was the language and not the contents
of the book that was forbidden. But there were plenty of
Nationalists in the town. It is noteworthy that though our errand
was well known everywhere, and people hastened to tell "the
Englishwoman" Albania's hopes and fears, not once did any one come
to tell me that Albania wanted to be joined to Greece. It was always
"Give us our own schools," "Free us from the Greek priest." At
Elbasan we found a bale of publications awaiting us, sent from
Monastir in anticipation of what would happen at Berat.

Here there was a charming old Albanian Mutasarrif, who did all he
could to make my visit pleasant and begged me to send many English
visitors. He had been Governor of Tripoli (now taken by Italy), and
told me that on returning home to Albania after very many years'
foreign service he was horrified to find his native land worse used
than any other part of the Turkish Empire with which he was
acquainted. He was hot on the school question, and declared his
intention of having Albanian taught. As for our books we might sell
as many as we pleased, the more the better. The little boys of the
Moslem school flocked to buy them, and we sold, too, to several
Albanians who wore the uniform of Turkish officers.

The Albanian periodical, published in London by Faik Bey, was known
here. A definite effort was being made at Elbasan to break with the
Greek Church. An Albanian priest had visited Rome, and there asked
leave to establish at Elbasan a Uniate Church. He was the son of a
rich man, and having obtained the assent of Rome returned with the
intention of building the church himself, and had even bought a
piece of land for it. But leave to erect a church had to be first
obtained from the Tur