The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-31
Flags Of the five nations on old fortress at Scutari

water, except an occasional fisher
| mans boat
The Turks, in all their years of occu-
patton. never took the trouble to build
| a wharf or pier, and the landing from
the steamer must be made by means of
| long narrow rowboat that carries as
many passengers as can crowd in.
Coming from the modern businesslike
little Montenegro port one is suddenly
dropped into the very heart Of the
orient.
Crowdng around the landing place
are Turkish women in heavy black
cloaks and thick wells, Albanian women
In the oddities of their mountain cos
tunes. Turks and Albanians in red or
white fezzes and with distinguishing
bits of dress to show their tribal or
racial relations, and here and there in
braid and brass buttons and a blue or
gray uniform to mark the soldiers of
the international troops. Swarming
around the waters edge is a throng Of
men and boys in the rags and tatters
of the Orient, screeching and scream
ing in all the dialects of Turkish and
Albanian and struggling for the possess
sion of the passengers and their bag
gage. The town lies a mile away to the
east, and the old Turkish carriages
with their teams of thin scrawny little
horses rattle away over the cobble-
stones to the deadly peril Of crowd
of insistent beggars.
Scutari has the air OF garrison town
making ready for a battle, for the SOL
ders of five nations that are stationed
there are not backward in making their
presence felt. The bewildering variety
of uniforms that the British, Austrian,
Italian. German and French troops can
display when on active duty is always
in evidence. The flags OF the different
nations float from the old fortress on
the hill and wave from barracks and
from the headquarters of the COM
manders in all parts OF the town.
The quarters of the British troops
are on one side Of the old Turkish pa
rade ground. You do not need to see the
Union Jack to identify them, for John
Bull takes his sports even to Albania,
and at almost any hour of the day one
may see a hundred or two men In
khaki uniforms pressed close around a
ring where two husky youths stripped
to the waist are battling according to
the Marquis Of Queensberry.
The French and Austrians have the
other two sides of the parade ground,
the Germans have quarters in old bar
racks near by, and the Italians have
transformed buildings on the edge Of
the town into quarters for their SOL
diers.
Everywhere in Scutari one feels the
hustle and machinery of war without
its actually. A heavy military auto
mobile flying an Italian flag and loaded
with officers PUSHES through the street;
a French patrol, mounting sentries.
tramps past; a battery of machine guns
in charge of British officers rattles in
from practice in the country, and de-
tachment after detachment Of Germans
and Austrians marches past from the
drill grounds. An Albanian with his
heart set on making trouble who would
uOt Dt dWtu ny inns uispidy Wouiu
be venturesome soul indeed
But besides imbuing the natives and
any strangers who may have designs
upon the town with a proper respect
for its guardians, the troops have
cleaned the place until 1t glistens like
Holland village. Out in their peace
full cemeteries the very bones Of all the
old Turkish governors must have been
stirred by what has been going on in
the city they so serenely misruled for
so many years. The international au-
thorities have also given Scutari some
thing which no other Albanian town
possesses-names for its streets. The
broad central thoroughfare that divides
the town into two almost equal parts
has been chrfstened Rue Internationale,
In the naming of the other streets and
even Of the alleys all the five other
nations have been recognized. There
are the Rue Franz Ferdinand, Rue
Dresden, Rue Dartmouth. Rue King
Edward VII, Rue Garibaldi. Rue Saint
Bon and Rue Ernest Renan.
Naturally the policing of the city
itself and OF the ten kilometer limit of
International control il being thor
oughly and efficiently accomplished
There have been critical times during
the occupation when such decisive per-
suaders as machine guns have been
found necessary to clear the streets.
In the earlier days Of the occupation,
when there were more opportunities for
race strife on the border OF the district,