The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1917-09-04
Three Sides To the Contro-
versy Regarding Its
Future.
CONDITIONS
Centuries Have Brought
Few Changes To the
People.
Correspondence Associated Press


CORFU, Island Of Corfu, Aug. A.
Just across this narrow strait lies Al
ban!a, that no-man's land over which
Italy has just proclaimed protector
ate. One can see plainly from here the
narren grey mountains of Albania,
making a ragged line along the sky.
They live very near. hardly more than
ten miles off, and an optical illusion
wakes them seem nearer. Many AL
! banians are seen on the streets here,
the men blg-Dodied and rather fierce
looking, wearing their picturesque ma
tive costume. With Albania so near
at nand, this is good place to look into
the Albanian question at close range.
Italy's proclamation Of protector
ate over Albania has thrown one more
problem into the European patchwork
which will have to be settled at the
peace conference. Just now the qres-
ton is boiling here, and at Paris, Rome
and Athens. There are three distinct
currcnts-the Italian, which supports
the protectorate as a measure of self
defense for Italy's exposed front on the
Adriatic; the Greek, which looks upon
Albania as northern Greece and calls
it Epirus; and the southern Slavs, that
powerful and growing union of Serbs,
Croats, Slovaks and all other Slavs of
the Western Balkans. These latter,
the Slavs, look upon Italy's protec-
torate as move to encircle the Ad-iat-
ic and close out the Balkan people
from ever getting to the sea.
What Albania herself thinks OF it
no one seems to have considered. This
seems rather singular at a time when
the great powers are talking so much
about the principle Of nationality ana
the right Of all people to determine
their own political destinies. The AL.
banians are never heard from on this
question as to who shall rule them, and
apparently they care nothing about
how it is settled. These Albanian men
and women who come here are looked
upon as docile peasants. incapable OF
having any political aspirations or of
the desire to form a nation.
Albania appears to be the one coun.
try abandoned by nature, as so poor
In resources as not to be worth deyel.
opment or progress. 1t has lain here
for centuries, alongside the great cen.
tiers of ancient culture, midway be.
tween Rome and Athens, and yet it is
as backward today as It was centuries
ago, and the people are as primitive
and uncivilized as some of the wild
tribes Of central Africa. In northern
Albania the people are savage noun.
taineers. THERE'S nothing like organ.
lied industry or agriculture anywhere:
no gathering In towns end cities and
the development of society.
There Is no such thing as a bank In
all Albania. There is no railway. Roads
are the foot-paths of ages, or the old
military highways of the Romans. Al
though Albania mas an Adriatic front
rivalling ltaly's, yet she hasn't a port
or harbor from end to end. And yet
the Albanians are distinct race, with
their own language, but without the
ability through all the ages to lift
themselves into an organized state.
1t Is this indifference of Albania 1t.
self, that he's brought the rival inter
ests clashing from three sides. Com
ing through Rome. the Italian position
was explained to the writer as follows:
Italy has a geographical relation to AL
bania much like the United States has
to Cuba, Porto Rico or the Panama
canal. That is, concern in its future.
Moreover, Italy has an exposed coast.
line on the Adriatic Immediately across
from Albania, and only sixty miles
away at the Strait OF Otranto, Italy's
eastern coast is exposed in the sense
that 1t is low marshy front incapa.
BILE of having fortified port from one
end TO the other.
Naturally, therefore, with Albania
just across the way and very near at
hand, ltaly's action was one OF self
defense. This was particularly true
with Italian military lines stretching
across Albania from Valona to Saloni.
XII. Military necessity as we'll as self.
defense made the protectorate neces.
sary. But Italy has no territorial aspi-
rations over Albania, beyond the de.