ANARCHY OF ALBANIA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2218, 12 February 1886, Page 2

ANARCHY OF ALBANIA.

A London papor draws tho following uncomplimentary picture of' Alabama Probably the Government of Albania is the nearest approach to pure anarchy, "which Europe can show. North and south, ease and west, might is right; and ill that pithy sentence is comprised tho Constitution, Criminal Code, and Magna Cliarta of Albania. Being a Turkish province, there is naturally little semblance of law, and, owing to the temper of the people, practically none at all. Inside Scutari the troops enforce some of the Turkish decrees, put the nearest man into prison in the case of a disturbance, and occasionally shoot a malefactor who ' is rash enough to trust himself within the town; but in the country outaido, eaoh tribe is supreme in its ma territok; and they rule themselves with justicefflfd-. moderation, which might furnish a lesson to their nominal masters were the latter ¥ in the habit of taking a lesson from"" anyone. Naturally there are no roads, . and little to travel on tliem if there were. ' There are a fow bullock carts, but nearly •• < all the carrying of the country is done by ■ ponies. Scutari is almost, if not .altogether, the only town where the aineers and country people can buy sell, The bazaar is crowded every 'tyc'tj, nesday with representatives of nearly every village' and tribe in Albania, Leaving their homes on Sunday or Mon» day, many of tl\on> journey sixty or seventy miles, over mountain and river to " seP a loAd of firowood or half a dozen turkeys. Looking at a crowd in a bazaar \ ; on a Wednesday morning, one could fully - appreciate the necessity for the guard who stands with loaded rifles ready to shoot the first man who enters with hia arms. Before this regulation was enforced, '' the bazaar was the scene of a murder or. . two, as regularly as Wednesday eamo round. Now the shooting takes place in the country, or outside the town. Thwfiihoufc the whole of Albania tho ®ly authorised interpreter is the riflo. So many dialects are spoken that a man can never be quite sure that tho othe? man understands him, so he oxplai\m matters with his Martini. Tl\orc is no misunderstanding that and if tho assailed party is not thys convinced of his error,.', lie, in his to, promptly retorts through the same medium. Even if the country were settled and feuds abolished, it. itfa doubtful if the people would cease to carry arms. Tho Albanian, especially tho mountaineer, is a born soldior; weapons are to him what a ship is to a sailor, or cattle to a fanner, Deprive him of his rifle and revolver, and you leave him-', no joy in life. Through his rifle ho e*-, presses himself; he shows by shooting at somebody, hijarjty, to banging into the air, firing as close as .possible to tlw etraneer's head, a sense of honour by sliooting hia neighbor. It is these mountain nlans, every man armed to tho teeth arid accustomed to weapons from tho cradle, with whom any futuro possessor of Albania will have to deal. If they are left alono thoy koop quiet ; but when irritated, their powers for mischief are very considerable. Sometime ago two mountaineers wero shot in the town. ' That oveffig down came 400 or 500 comrades them. They rotired at daybjealj, levying :• between sixty and seventy trdopors'on : the ground, having %mselves lost one / man, Tho principal mountain clane were the 3o.rfci, the Grundi, the dementi, and the Castrati, These four can muster from 4,000 to 6,000 men each, and it said that tho mountain tribes can muster]?" 40,000; and in their native fastnesses 1000 men ran hold the position ' treble their number.