RECONSTRUCTION OF COUNTRY BEGUN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 April 1939, Page 5

RECONSTRUCTION OF COUNTRY BEGUN

Italian Measures of Control

TROOPS ENCAMPED ALONG BALKAN FRONTIERS

By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.

LONDON, April 10. Messages from Tirana report that the occupation of Albania has ceased to be a military problem. Italian troops are encamped along the Greek and Yugoslavian frontiers, and the reconstruction of the country according to Fascist ideas has begun. Italian gendarmes have resumed police duty. Scutari is normal, having surrendered to the Bersaglieri. The victors made a peace gesture by hauling down the white flag and replacing it with the Albanian, not the Italian, flag.-The surrender followed an armistice after a gun-fight in which each side lost one killed and 15 wounded. A decree orders the giving up of all arms within 48 hours.

The Italians released two Albanian officers who were imprisoned by their compatriots because they refused to cease fire till their munitions were exhausted. The Italians rescued from the crowd an Albanian youth who was refusing to cheer Signor Mussolini. The populace is bitter about Britain. All pictures of King Zog have been hidden. Meanwhile Italian reinforcements are still reaching Durazzo, where it is pointed out that Italy can close the Adriatic without using her navy ■ because Italian guns now face each other on either side of the sea.