ALBANIA'S MOTHER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 4 May 1929, Page 18

ALBANIA'S MOTHER

Imagine a rough mountain track in Albania. A country vehicle comes jolting along, carrying a frail, whitehaired Englishwoman. The mountaineers come running up, firing their guns, and shouting "Mother!" Truly it is a remarkable scene, but it will never take place again, for Elizabeth Lady Carnarvon is dead. This wonderful woman married the fourth Earl of Carnarvon, who was Colonial Secretary and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. They had only been married 12 years before he-died, leaving her'to devote herself to their, two sons; Aubrey and Mervyn Herbert. -~: - Aubrey was a diplomat and-a traveller. He fell in love with the beautiful but poverty-stricken land of Albania, and when ho died in 1923 his mother determined to carry on the work -of her adored son.

First she set to work lighting malaria, the. scourge of Albania at that time. She established clinics, got supplies of quinine, and enlisted the aid of the Bockefeller Foundation. When famine came to Northern Albania she organised a refugee centre, which was called Herbert, after her son. With Lord Cecil she became honorary treasurer of the Albanian Educational Fund, started libraries, and established troops of Boy Scouts. She also did what she could in the prisons. No wonder the Albanians loved their champion and called her Mother. With her son she did much for peace. But they were not the sort of people who love all countries except their own. Lady Carnarvon was one of the most devoted of ■ war workers, toiling in burning Alexandria to help our wounded soldiers sent from Gallipoli. At the end of the war she had a beautiful and practical idea: music should help to heal the men shattered by war. So on the first Armistice Day the Vocal Therapy Society was founded, and specially qualified teaehxrs were appointed to train shell-shocked exservice men to. become hospital choirs. To some who had been dumb it restored speech, to all it gave much joy. Lady Carnarvon was a very happywoman. She was never lonely or bored. There are people who get so miserable in their own pleasure that they find living a hateful thing. But Lady Carnarvon could tell them that it is a dear world, full of fun and work and happiness. She knew the secret way of finding these things.