OPPRESSED ALBANIA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1185, 21 July 1911, Page 5

OPPRESSED ALBANIA.

SUFFERINGS OF REFUGEES. Ey Tclecraph—Press Association-Oopyriiriri London, July 19. Sir Edward Grey, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in reply to questions in the House of Commons, detailed tho sufferings of ten thousand Albanians 'who had taken rci'ugo in Montenegro. There wero hundreds also southwards of' Skutari. Britain was unable to undertake relief operations, added tho Minister, but she would endeavour to secure facilities for the exercise of privalo Ijcncvolcnce. TURKEY'S RUTHLESS METHODS. Grave news comes from Albania, writes tho "Fromdcnblatt," of Vienna, last mouth, news tending to blight the hopes that peace might bo restored in that country within a calculable period. The Constitutional regime in Turkey, which could hardly have been established without the help of tho Mussulman Albanians, ignored from the outset tho consideration naturally due to them, and turned against them with unjust severity. The answer was the Albanian rising of 1910. When it had suppressed the rising with unbridled vigour, the Turkish Government believed itself not to have done enough, and thought right to supplement its bloody work by tho forcible disarmament of a nation accustomed to bear arms from time immemorial. This action, though perhaps justifiable in itself, was carried out so harshly and ruthlessly that our diplomacy was moved to direct the attention of the Porto iu friendly fashion to tho doubtful valuo of such a policy, seeing that the effect could only bo to engender sullen resentment among a people with whose loyalty the existence of European Turkey is closely bound up. This spring a new insurrection broke out, and again the Turkish Government let the Albanians feel tho heavy hand of Torgut Shevket Pasha. However comprehensible may bo the decision to put down armed revolt by force, it is equally regrettable that, on this occasion also, the Turkish Government should consider its task to consist only in brutal repression.