The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06
POOR ALBANIA IS
 STILL HARASSED
Women and Children Bear the Brunt of Turkish
 Cruelty

London, August 5.-(Special.) )-Investi- gations sent to the harassed region of Albania report a situation grave beyond belief. They state that unless prompt action is taken by some powerful Chris tian nation, whole tribes of intelligent, peaceable, industrious Albanians will soon be exterminated.
 They assert that women and children are made to bear the brunt of Turkish cruelty, and they picture a fever infested country, swarming with Turkish soldiers
 whose prediction for rapine, murder and dissertation compares .favorably with the tabled stories that are handed down from the wars of the Holy Land.
 Particularly do they censure Torgut shevket, the general in command of the Turkish troops. Their reports state that
 though Turkey has produced some un- scrupulous and bloody generals, she has never produced one more diabolically di- | rect in his application of age-old Turk | ish methods of warfare-than Torgut Shevket" It is he, they claim. backed | by the Turkish government, that is behind
 the vindictive cruelty shown by the Truks in dealing with their opponents
 In order to appreciate the full signifi-
 canoe of this historic tragedy that is being enacted in the southeastern corner of Eu- rope, it is necessary to realize that the people whom Torgut Shevket is ruthless ly destroying possess none of the attrib-
 utes either of Turks or of comic opera brkyands with which they are usally asso- eiated. They are a handsome, intelligent race. European in descent. Although for centuries they have been subject to
 the brutal domination of the Turks, they have never adopted the Turkish lam guage or religion or method of life. The warfare which Torgut Sheyket is now conducting is one of concentration starvation, taxation, pillage, destruction | by fire, and simple, brutal butchery.
 The Malissoris having demanded tha'
 the Turkish promises made when the l young Turks assumed power at Constan- 1 tinople should be fulfilled, Torgut Shev- l xet has replied by burning their villages driving them from the mountains, taking possession of the mountain passes, fore ing them to remain during the hot, un healthy summer in the lowlands, where their sheep and cattle will starve, shut ting off all sources of food supply and de
 clarng all those who give them assist | ance to be rebels.
 | Nearly one-half of the highland clans
 have been accustomed from time imme' morial to descend every autumn witi
 their flock and families into the Breguma- l tia and to winter there. But in June
 great swarms of mosquitoes make this l lowand country uninhabitable, and there ! fore, early in summer the highlanders re- turn to the hills. Torgut Shevket. taking advantage of this annual migration, pro-
 ceeded to exterminate those highlanders
 who remained in the hills through the
 winter. Such as he could not catch he
 drove over the border into Montenegro.
 Early in the spring he took possession of the mountain passes through which the
 emigrants expected to return to their
 homes, and he refused to let them go
 back. The clans are now concentrated in
 a low, malarial country, where they are
 slaughtering their focks, upon which they are dependent for existence, but which are insufficiently supplied with food | in the low country, where both humans
 and beasts alike are dying from fever caused by drinking the foul water of the now stagnant marshes.
 Ibrham Effendi Kjori, superior Turk | ish official at Skutarai. has publicly de- | clared that the Ottoman government in- tends to depopulate the highlands in or
 der to bring in new settlers more in sym
 pathy with the Turkish government and
 religion This same Turkish official adds calmly that the government intends to let
 the Malissori die in the Bregumatia like swine in bog