REVOLT IN ALBANIA

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 13057, 27 April 1910, Page 5

REVOLT IN ALBANIA

TURKISH TRAIN HELD UP. 34,060 INSURGENTS. Press Association.—Telcgraph.—Copyright Received April 27, 9 a.m. CONSTANTINOPLE. April 26. Three thousand Albanians seized Katchanik Pass and held up a train on the Uskub-Ferisovioh railway, capturing the supplies, and disarming some -of the soldiers. The train was then allowed to proceed to Prishtina with the warning that no military convoys would hereafter bo permitted. ■ Thirtyrfohr thousand- Albanians have now risen. • ■ '

The rebellion which has broken out in Albania against Turkish rule is a significant proof of the : reality of a danger which has been predicted by many observ. ers since Abdul Hamid’s deposition'. The Young Turks have devoted themselves in their constitution-making to the' task of breaking down the . religions and racial barriers between different sections of the population, and it was only to be expected That though this programme was undertaken in the interests-of nation-building it would be extremely distasteful to the Mohammedans of the old, bitter, and zealous type who refused to tolerate the,idea that the Christians in the Turkish Empire could be as good Turkish citizens as themselves. A 1 bania is the home of the bitterest and most irreconciliable of the Mohammedans in European Turkey. Out of a population of about 1,500,000 in Albania, over 1,000,000 are Mohammedans. Like the majority' of their co-religionists in Asiatic Turkey, they regard the Young Turks and 'the Parliamentarians, who deposed Abdul Hamid, as being little better than atheists. The Albanians warlike, fanatical, distrustful of new-fangled political ideas and resentful at tlie granting of citizenship to the Christian population, have raised a formidable insurrection amid their rooky fastnesses,' and there is no telling where, it will end.