TURKISH OUTRAGES IN ALBANIA

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 145, 11 August 1911, Page 8

TURKISH OUTRAGES IN ALBANIA

W MOLESAFE DEVASTATI().\. I have returned (wrote (.lie special correspondent ol' “The 'rimes’' on hu'e it)) from an interesting tour of tl’.c frontier district, undertaken for t!ic purpose of visiting, the Malissori refugees and ascertaining their condition. Starting from Plavnit/.a on Saturday moining, 1 visited all the hoarder railages between that place and Podgoritza. The villages are crowded with refugees, many of them :n a state of great destitution, though sheltered and fed by the Montenegrins so far as their scanty means allow. In one house I found 36 perrons. Almost all the refugees are old men, women, and children. 'the young men are still lighting. At Gutohnvsky 1 saw an assembly of several hundred. None of them had yet heard of the amnesty. I explained its terms, telling them of tiio Sultan’s gift of £IO,OOO for reniilding houses. Thev vehemently declared that they would not return home even if the Sultan filled their houses with gold. They had been irco for 400 years, and would never

submit to the Turkish yoke. King Nicholas was their only friend, and they would remain there even if he gave orders to cut their throats. ! hey stated that all their property had been destroyed, and that old men and women had been thrown into burning houses, and related other atrocities too horrible to mention. For these they vouched with a Bossa.

which with them possesses the sanctity of a solemn oath. At Goshisch. on_ the frontier, I saw a number of ruined houses. The conflagrations which followed the passage of the troops wore witnessed by frontier guards and the whole population, and are. described by deserters who had taken part in the destruction. Some Christian villages of the Clan Brodu escaped, apparently owing to the close _ proximity of the Montenegrin Frontier troops. MANY VILLAGES BURNT. Yesterday I proceeded to a mountainous district where -125 families have sought shelter. At the village of Fundi na, I saw some 500 fugitives.. All refuse to return home unless King Nicholas gets a guarantee of their safety. They would prefer to, die of hunger here, or to throw themselves into Lake Skutnri. Subsequently I went to a height on the frontier which commands an extensive view over the devastation of the country. A large number of roofless, deserted houses wore visible. No living being could bo seen except the Turkish soldiers in their numerous encampments on fho heights. If any reliance can be placed on concurrent testimony from all sides, native and foreign, the devastation of the homesteads of the Catholic Malissori has been complete. Practically all the houses belong to tho Catholic Shkreli and Kastrati tribes have been burnt, and all of the Grudi tribe except at Biakle Schichtc, near tho frontier, together with the villages of Vukli, Riskhi, Paptcha, Krishevo, and many others, i'ho conflagration in some instances took place a week or ten days after the passage of the troops. Tho burning of the villages of Traboin, CukH, Old Traboin, and Drift i was carried out in the presence of Italian spectators, whose evidence cannot be doubted. A friend who hist week reproached Torgut for this wholesale destruction received tho reply that it war. carried out under his orders. He had declared before leaving Constantinople that ho would teach the Albanians a lesson which would remain for generations.