AHMED ZOGU

Evening Star, Issue 19952, 23 August 1928, Page 4

AHMED ZOGU

EYES ON THRONE MUSSOLINI APPROVES Press Association—By Telegraph-—Copyright, DCPAZZO, August 22. ( Received August 2J. at 0.-'O n.m.) The Constituent Assembly is expected very shortly to proclaim (ho President, Ahmed Bey Zogu, King or Albania, with the approval of Signor Mussolini.—Australian Press Association. [Ahmed Pay Zogu was elected President on January til, 1925. Under the Treaty ol Tirana, arranged in .1920 between Italy and Albania, Italy pledges herself to prevent the overthrow of iho present Albanian regime if threatened by revolution or other perils.] OUTSTANiIiHG PERSONALITY Albania is pun many rather a oneman snow (wrote ,ur ueorge Kenwicii, special correspondent ui too * jjany oaromcle/ Horn iiianaj. lint tuai one man is a very remarkable personality. 110 is Aniuccl iiey /.ugu, t'resiueiit ot tile itepuuiie ui Albania, and ■■Tieud ul tiio r.xecutivo." Alimed bey is a JtamJsome young man ol about Imrty years ot age, ami is the youngest elnei ut a .buropean State, with me exception of the President ol i’iniaiut At the ago oflourtecn he found Jmnsult at the head of his mountain clan, and lie then began to interest fumsell in politics. Tu-uay lie is undoubtedly the only Albanian who can run Albania Independent. Already he Juts clearly shown his capacity to govern, la Jij22 ho formed his first .Ministry, to some extent with lliu help of a political ■’club” known as “ Tho Clique,” a tronblesomo reactionary gang mainly composed of exTurkish oiiiccrs. Ahmed l.icy soon saw that “ The i Clique ” was the bane ut his country’s 'polities; ho cut himself loose from it, and it was, as a result, largely responsible for driving him .from power in March, 1921, The young Albanian’s first term of olliee was the most tranquil period _ that laid been known in Albanian history up to then. A revolution subsequently caused Ahmed Pcy to floe from the country to Jugo-Slavia, and then the notorious

“Archbishop’’ Fan Stylian Noli came* into power. Ho became I’rinio Minister, showing himself to be absolutely incapable of decent administration, and proving that he was a self-seeker of tho worst possible type. That he was under Bolshevist influence is undoubted. Ho allowed a Bolshevist consul, with a largo staff, to come to_ Albania, though there were no Albanian interests in Russia and no Soviet interests in Albania. Happily, Ahmed Bey was on his way back at the end of 192 J, when the Bolshevists arrived, and the fact that ho had in his forces 100 Russian royalist officers and men, recruited at Uskub, o c tho old Wrangel army, caused the Soviet representative and his staff to leave Albania in a greater hurry than would otherwise have been they case. Ahmed Bey is now firmly in the saddle, and it is noteworthy that sinco his return there has not been a single murder or serious act of violence in the country. Ahmed Bey lias done a lot tor education; ho is attracting foreign capital and enterprise to the country, and ho is extremely modest—unlike Fan Noli—in his ideas of a foreign loan. The revenue of the country is 15,000,000 gold francs, and Ahmed Bey has so reduced expenditure as to make tho Budget almost balance, Albania has no foreign debt, though there is a kind of internal debt of about a million gold francs in tho form of unpaid salaries of officials. Ahmed Bey is a man of really sterling character. No one can meet him without forming a high opinion'of himIn a Land where bribery is an ordinary thing he is unbribablo. From what I have said it will bo seen ’that Albania holds one of the keys to European peace, and that at this moment everything hangs somewhat precariously in the balance. But I think it is evident, too, that Albania- really deserves encouragement and foreign help, the return for which will be of a practical and profitable nature.