Lord Lansdowne's optimism was not borne out by Thursday's news
from the Near East. According to Consular despatches received at Constantinople early in the week, the Albanians in the Jakova district are in open revolt, and serious collisions have taken place between them and the Ottoman troops, who were defeated in an engagement at Babaj-Hoshi, twelve kilo- metres north-west of Jakova. Reinforcements were sent from Uskub and Monastir, troops to take their place being moved up from Salonika ; and on Friday it was reported that Shemsi Pasha, the Turkish General who was besieged at Bahaj-Hoshi, had been relieved after hard fighting, in which the Albanians lost eight hundred men. The disaffection of the Albanians is no new symptom; but while the motive for the present outbreak is officially traced to their antagonism to the Macedonian reforms, it is suspected at Vienna that the move- ment is a " put-up job " engineered from Constantinople to frustrate the carrying out of the Austro-Russian scheme.
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