HARD FIGHTING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1090, 31 March 1911, Page 5

HARD FIGHTING.

TURKISH REVOLT SPREADING. EXCITEMENT IN ALBANIA. REBELS NOW TEN THOUSAND j STRONG. I I ULTIMATUM TO SERVIA. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrielit (Rec. March 30, 10.50 p.m.) Constantinople, March 30. Advices from Skodra, the capital of the province of Scutari, state that Turkish i troops at all points have been engaged in : fighting for the last twenty-four hours, i Four officers and 160 men have been killed. The enemy is ten thousand strong, and includes two thousand Montenegrins. The murder of Captain Schlichling, the German instructor in the Turkish Army, is regarded as a sign of excitement in Albania similar to that of 1003, when Albanians shot the Russian Consuls at Mitrovitza and Monastir. The Turkish Minister threatens to quit Cetinje, the Servian capital, within twenty-four hours unless twelve Turkish soldiers, captured by Montenegrins, are surrendered. TROOPS HURRYING TO KOPLIK. BIG FORCE MOBILISED. Constantinople, March 20. Fifteen hundred troops are hurrying t) Koplik, eleven miles from Scutari, to intercept advancing Albanians. A further 3000 men are being mobilised. ARMS POURING INTO THE COUNTRY, A DIFFICULT PROBLEM; "The situation in Albania _ is _ very threatening, and an insurrection is believed to have been planned for the spring"—so wrote the Constantinople correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian, on January 17. He continued: The Governor of Djakova has resigned in fear of his life, reinforcements are demanded at Dibra, and ' the Government is sending four battalions. Isa Bulatiu, the untaxable Albanian leader, is organising insurrectionary Committees everywhere, and arms and military stores are pouring into the country. To make things worse, common action liotweeii Albanians and Bulgarians is talked of. "Tho demands of some 2000 insurgent Albanians, recently reported in tho press, include a full recognition of the Albanian language, and also what amounts to a modified form of Home Rule for Albania. The Albanians, whose fearless courage has always been admitted, are in many respects one of the most virile and hardy races of the Balkan Peninsula. They form some of the best troops and officers in the Turkish army, and under tho old system met with special favour in respect of taxes and laxity of government, though at tho same time educational freedom was denied them. "The sudden advent tj power of the Y'oung Turk party produced a chango in their condition in two ways. On tho one hand there, was, for the. moment at least, complete educational freedom; elementary grammars, reading-books, and newspapers in the Albanian language were openly on sale throughout Turkey, and Albanian clubs were formed. There was, in short, a great national Albanian . revival, On the other hand, attempts wero made by tho central Gorernment to enforce.taxation, and to put Albania under a more rigorous control. This led to disaffection, and in Northern Albania to an open revolt. The Turkish Government, fearing the national spirit they had aroused, adopted a mistaken policy of repression, and attempted to 'Ottomanise' the Albanians by limiting their educational freedom. 'The result was the revolt in Northern Albania last summer, which has not yet died out." . ,