Twenty Years of Balkan TangleDurham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
History
Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle
Durham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel; Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
Where he is now I know not. His words come back to me always. After
three months I emerged from the hospital, well but weak, into a
dismayed and depressed Scutari. The Turks were trying to hamper
nationalism by ordering Albanian to be printed in Arabic characters,
and making Turkish compulsory in the schools. They had roused fierce
anger, too, by publicly flogging some offenders, a punishment
regarded in Albania as so shameful and humiliating that it bred
sympathy for the victim and hatred for the inflicter. Has it,
perhaps, the same result in India and Egypt?
Our next news was that Montenegro's feelings were woefully hurt.
Nikola had Just been made king--but Montenegro was the only state in
Europe on which the special mission to announce the death of King
Edward and the accession of King George had not called. Montenegro
had spent much on sending Prince Danilo to attend the funeral, and
Princess Militza is distantly related to Queen Mary. The omission
rankled very badly. It would be interesting to know who suggested
that King Nikola should be left out.
Having achieved kingship, Nikola soon began to act. So soon as the
Turks had persuaded the Albanians to disarm, they began to make a
census of all fit for military service. This the Christians swore
they would never give, and were furious with Austria for not
intervening. The Moslems, too, vowed they would not serve outside
Albania. And before any one knew what was going to happen a number
of the Gruda tribe went over the border into Montenegro. Numbers of
the Hoti and Shkreli followed. Scutari was astounded. The Austrians
were furious, and vowed Russia had paid for it. The Turks clapped on
further anti-Albanian laws, and most of the papers were suppressed.
The Koritza girls' school was closed, and news of arrests came from
all over the country. The Turks circulated copies of the Arabic
alphabet, and ordered its use, and the Albanians burnt them.
To escape the winter I went to Egypt, nor will I detail my six
months' stay there, except to note that it entirely changed my ideas
about the Austrian occupation of Bosnia. My diary towards the close
of my stay notes: "I wouldn't be a native under British rule at any
price. They may 'do a lot of good to you,' but, dear God! they do
let you know their contempt for you, and drive your inferiority into
you. Any one with any spunk would rather go to hell his own way than
be chivied to heaven by such odiously superior beasts. . . . The
Moslems are not grateful for 'benefits' they do not want, and the
Christians are discontented and annoyed, as in Bosnia." During the
winter I heard from Albania that a fresh revolt was planning; that
General Garibaldi had promised arms and men, and that it would break
out in the spring. Before leaving Egypt for Europe I stayed at
Alexandria, and saw my friend the attache, who was now a full-blown
Austrian consul, and retracted the criticisms I had made to him on
Austria in Bosnia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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