ALBANIA'S ARMY

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1927, Page 4

ALBANIA'S ARMY

KX-BRITISH .MINISTER ON THE CRISIS. Few living Englishmen have so full and recent a knowledge of Albania and her complicated politics as Sir Harry Evces, K.C.M.G., who retired from the post of British Minister to that country last autumn after five years’ experience of a turbulent and critical period iif Albania’s internal and external relations.

Discussing the crisis which threatens to develop in Albania, Sir Harry Eyres yesterday said: j “British interests in Albania of a. commercial kind are practically limited to a oO per cent., right of participation in 1 1 10 development of any oilfields which may be found to exist in that country. This confession was granted by the Albanian Republic while I was in Durazzo, and is exercised bv the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. I'p to the present oil has not been found in paying quantities. "But it should he clearly borne in mind that peace in the Balkans is an essential British interest. The Balkans have always been the most inflammable part of Europe. It is the useful function of Albania to serve as a buffer •Stale. She plays in Europe a role similar to that which Afghanistan has for the last fifty years discharged between British India and Russia. “ Almied Bev, the President of the Albanian Republic, is a picturesque and likeable fellow. He is only 32, a typical mountain chieftain, with a strong hacking of fighting clansmen. During the war he was on the side of the Austrians, who freely promised Albanian independence. Afterwards he came more and more to the front in the new political situation which developed as a result of the decision of the Powers to give Albania independence.

“ He lias a very hard task to fulfil. The Jugo-Slavs on the one side, the Italians on the other, regard Albania as a strategic frontier zone of their own territory. There is much intrigue, not openly, hut possibly secretly encouraged by interested parties. With £20,000 any man could raise a revolution in Albania in three weeks. “ Ahnicd Bey’s Government has no direct European backing. The British Foreign Office lias, consistently and wisely, followed a policy of strict neutrality. But Albania’s politics inevitably revolve round the opposing poles of Serbian and Italian influence. ‘ t

am sometimes accused of being pro-lugo-Slav. sometimes of being. proItalian,” said Ahmed Hey to me shortly before 1 left Albania. ‘Nobody ever thinks of me as what I am, which is wholeheartedly pro-Albanian.’ !) BRITISH OFFICERS.

“ Albania lias a gendarmerie, sonic 3.000 strong, which is commended by that distinguished British soldier. General Sir Jocelyn Percy, who was Lord Plumer’s Chief of Stall' in the Second Army. He lias eight other British oTieers under him, though all these are there as officials of the Albanian Government without any intervention of the British Foreign Office.

" Italy’s interests in Albania are represented by a bank, which is nominally the Albanian State Bank, hut is now under Italian control. There is a promise of a loan by Italy to Albania of two millions sterling, nominally seven per cent., blit likely to cost considerably more. Against this the Customs revenues of Albania "ill be pledged.

“ Important personages in Jugoslavia have always persisted in declaring that their country will light rather than tolerate the creation of Italian territorial interests in the Balkan peninsula. Their army, which was to have been entirely reconstituted by the •nd of 1028, is a year ahead of its programme. It is in this fact that the danger of the i,resent situation in Albania lies. The threatened internal icvoluton which is the nominal cause of the present crisis, would be unimportant. were it not for the powerful rival international interests in the background. “ Revolutons are periodical in Albania ; there was a pretty serious one last year which was suppressed after heavy, but obscure lighting.’’