REVOLT IN ALBANIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22653, 19 August 1935, Page 9

REVOLT IN ALBANIA

MILITARY LEADER ASSASSINATED MISTAKEN FOR KING ZOG (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph —Copyright) BELGRADE, August IC. . Mistaken for King Zog, whose car he was occupying, General Leon Gagiiardi, formerly inspector of the Albanian Army, was assassinated with his chauffeur near Fieri, in the neighbourhood of Valloua. Subsequent rioting developed into a revolt against the Government. In isolated districts the rebels were initially successful under the leadership of Shevkct Beg Verlazzi, who was recently released after serving a sentence for conspiracy and whose daughter King Zog jilted when he came to the throne.

Troops from Tirana reinforced the gendarmerie, proclaimed martial law, and quelled the local outbreaks, but the rebels control part of Southern Albania, causing unrest in Tirana and Vallona. Raiders crossed the Jugoslav frontier near Gusinje and killed Mustapha Balibek, a noted Albanian exile, also the frontier guard. Three of King Zog’s leading supporters took refuge in Greece. COLLAPSE OF REVOLT REBELS IN FLIGHT BELGRADE, August 17. (Received August 18, at 8 p.m.) The Albanian revolt is reported to have collapsed through lack of backing, the rebels fleeing to Italy to escape court martial. THE KING’S ROMANCE MINISTER’S DAUGHTER JILTED LONDON, August 17. The Daily Mail’s Belgrade correspondent says that King Zog’s broken romance with the, daughter of M. Verlazzi, the ex-Preinier, the richest man in Albania, began in 1923 when she was 10 and he was 28. They were lovers for three years, after which King Zog’s affection cooled. Mademoiselle Verlazzi last year married M. Djemil Dino, exMinister for Albania in London, who lost his diplomatic post dwing to a scandal in 1932, when his mistress, a pretty Albanian girl, committed suicide. M. Verlazzi-never forgave King Zog for jilting his daughter.