A BOOM VANISHES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 4

A BOOM VANISHES

ALBANIA SLOWS UP

PROBLEM FOR THE PEOPLE

Albania seems to be making its progress by fits and starts. This correspondent used to visit its capital every six months and always found great changes. Now he returns after a three years' absence, and finds it almost as he left it, writes a correspondent from Tirana to the "Christian Science Monitor" recently. But perhaps now is the time to take a look back at the headway that lias been made over a longer period. One might be misled by patches of plaster which have fallen off some of the buildings that last time appeared so new, and the smooth, even sidewalks which rise here and sag there, allowing rainwater to collect in little puddles—into thinking that Albania was going backwards.

Five years ago or more everything seemed possible in Albania. Young King Zog had imposed order. Roads were being pushed in all directions. Bridges leapt over wild mountain streams Schools dotted plain and hillside—even perched on mountain peaks. Parliament of a sort was working. A well-organised police force had wiped out banditry^ An ambitious army watched the borders. Newsboys shouted papers in the cities. Cement buildings, along wide boulevards, were replacing the mud huts among which wound Tirana's alleys. | Typical of Albania today is the I royal boulevard that stretches across j the city. It is wide and' straight with | the best modern pavement and with | broad, spacious sidewalks—but almost no houses. It is like a boulevard in a pasture. It might.be called "Hope Avenue." At one end is a jumble of ,■ old huts—where a stadium is to be; at j the other a grazing ground—where the t Royal palace'is to stand. DEVELOPMENT STALLED. It runs, through the main business area, passes between two lines of miflistrise, crosses a stream, and expands into a beautiful park which is sur-j rounded by the homes of Albania's elite. But so far all that has come to pass of this beautiful plan is the pavement, a cluster of Government buildings, and few scattered houses in the "elite quarter." Land along the main street is actually cheaper today than five years ago.' This does not mean that the country is going backward, but that the move forward has been checked. It started at too fast a pace, perhaps. If one tried to discern the most salient features in the picture of present-day Albania, one would find that there has been steady progress in road-building. Practically every vital bridge has been completed and traffic is no longer held up by primitive ferries. The roads also have been pushed further into the mountains than before. However, the road surface is bad. Jt is not kept in repair. New roads rapidly deteriorate. The automobiles, also, are shabbier and more dilapidated than five years ago, for the importation of new cars is prohibited. Travelling is .heaper than formerly. Tl,ese things all go together—lack of money, old cars, cheap travel. The air service continues to be among the best in Europe and is inexpensive. Salaries have been reduced in Albania. For a long time the State was not able to pay the civil servants on time, but now it has become punctual again, due perhaps to the 30 per cent, salary cut. The cost of living is high, but is going down. There is not much building, outside of some road con struction, so there is unemployment. Consequently there is little money, on the market. Wages have fallen. Security in Albania is exemplary. Nowhere is one safer than in the wildest of all Balkan lands. One may travel anywhere by night or day without fear. There k also more freedom of travel than, formerly. Police control is less irksome and one is not stopped so frequently, to show one's identification papers. Decided improvement has been made in the harbour at Durazzo, which is the country's chief port A long, wide pier has been built into the sea so that good-sized ocean liners can now dock. ' .it The town itself has also been made over. Most of the wretched mud huts have disappeared, the1 main streets have been straightened, widened, paved, and many substantial public and private buildings erected. Durazzo is a pleasing portal to the new kingdom of Albania. BASED ON GOLD, The Albanian currency is. based on gold and is remarkably secure. Paper money is accepted practically at par. Formerly the natives preferred gold and silver coins, collected from all Near Eastern lands, and shunned their own money. But now these drachmas, dinars, crowns, leys, and napoleons have disappeared, making' way for prosaic Albanian paper and nickel leks. There are no restrictions on the exporting of money. You can take only 10 marks out of Germany and only a few lire out of Italy, but you could ship a whole trunk full of dollars, pounds, or leks out of Albania, if you had them.

However, secure as the currency of the country is, and sound as the banking system seems to be, the economic and financial situation is bad.

This is the defect of the present regime. It has effected no fundamental economic reforms. It promises an agrarian bank and a system of agricultural instruction, but that is only a hope. Albania could feed 5,000,000 inhabitants, but it only half feeds the 1,000,000 it already has. The nation is undernourished;

The available farm land has not been distributed, what'is already owned by peasants is not well cultivated, farm animals are of the poorest types, implements primitive, markets bad, taxes high. Nothing effective has been done for Albanian peasants, and they are really the Albanian nation. There is little industry or trade, practically no professions, and not many artisans. Putting up piers and public buildings, constructing bridges, and training police are all comparatively easy when one gets gold and technical help from abroad. But to enable 1,000,000 backward people to draw wealth from Albania's rich but intractable soil is much harder.

The boom made by public works, built on loans, is over. The dream of quick reforms is dreamed out. The young reformers are discouraged. There is no more "jresto-chango!". Now the task is to help peasants plough, plant, harvest, market, improve cattle and chickens, and learn how to live.