CORRESPONDENCE.
THE FUTURE BOUNDARIES OF ALBANIA.
go THE EDITOR OF THE " &Renal:M."1 Sin,—The first fortnight of the Peace Conference has afforded an admirable illustration of Turkish diplomatic methods; and if the European situation is easier to-day, it is entirely due to the meeting of Ambassadors, and not to any incident at St. James's Palace. Fortunately there is not the slightest prospect of any Power or group of Powers attempting to repeat the lamentable error of 1878. Triple Alliance and Triple Entente are agreed in regarding the loss of Macedonia and Albania by the Turks as irrevocable; and the really vital question of the day is that of the future boundaries of the victorious Allies, and of the still embryonic principality of Albania.
By common consent the principle of "the Balkans for the Balkan peoples" has been proclaimed as the basis of the coming
settlement. But the principle of nationality cannot be enforced in its entirety owing to the racial distribution of the Peninsula ; it must be modified in accordance with the exigencies of geography. Just as the future Bulgaria must inevitably include a considerable Greek population on the northern shores of the ..Egean, so certain Bulgarian districts between iTskub and Istib will presumably fall to the share of Servia. The difficulty presented by the mixed population of Salonica can be overcome by its conversion into a free autonomous port under international guarantees; and this is the solution which would be most acceptable to the Jewish majority in the city and to the international trade interests involved, since it would avert the danger of Salonica being cut off from its hinterland by hostile tariffs.
But it is in the north of Turkey's lost territory that the problem is most complex. The Serb and Albanian population of Old Servia (the vilayet of Kossovo) is so inextricably inter- woven as to render its partition on racial lines quite impossible. The inevitable result must be a compromise between ethnical divisions on the one hand and historic traditions and geo- graphical considerations on the other hand. Skoplje (Uskub) and Prizren are the two capitals of medieval Servia, associated with its famous Tsar, Stephen Dushan. Kossovo is the scene of the Servian Flodden, consecrated by five centuries of national song ; De8anj contains the coronation church of the Servian Tsars, one of the few architectural fragments which have survived the Turkish conquest of the Balkans; while Ipek (Pet) is the ancient seat of the Servian Patriarchate. Servia has recovered by force of arms these remnants of her historic past, and nothing could justify the Great Powers in proposing their evacuation. Indeed Servia is likely to stake her very existence rather than consent to such an ending to a victorious war ; and who would dare to blame her for this P
Servia's claim to Durazzo is on an entirely different footing. It is true that Dushan occupied it for a few years in the fourteenth century ; but if that were to be admitted as a claim, there is not a frontier in Europe which would escape revision. But there is good reason to suppose that the Servian occupation of Durazzo was always intended partly to keep the war party in Belgrade quiet, and partly as a ballon d'essai in the diplomatic world; by this time Durazzo has obviously become a mere pawn to be sacrificed during the impending process of hard bargaining in London. Its loss need not be regretted by far-sighted Servians, for as a harbour for modern shipping it is almost worthless, and it lies over forty miles south of the only route which a Servian railway could follow. The retention of Durazzo by Servia would involve the occupation of its hinterland also, and would thus inevitably tempt the Greeks to advance their frontier as far as Valona. In short, it would not merely render Albanian autonomy illusory, but would lead directly to a Servo. Greek partition of the country. On the other hand, unless the northern frontier of Albania is limited to the valley of the White Drin, the special arrangements for securing Servia's outlet to the Adriatic would in their turn become illusory. This outlet can only be assured by leaving the future railway route from Prizren down the Drin Valley in the hands of Servia, and by assigning Skutari, the Bojana River, and the port of letedua to Montenegro. This solution should be acceptable to Austria-Hungary, since it excludes Servia from the seaboard and gives to Montenegro a harbour which, though slightly superior to Durazzo, is absolutely useless as a naval station ; to Italy, because it would open up a new era for the little State to which her dynasty is so closely linked ; to Servia, because it would secure to her all the advantages of free commercial access to the sea without the countervailing difficulties of policing a large tract of mountainous and barren country peopled by warlike and hostile tribes ; to Montenegro, because it would at last provide her with a worthy seat of government, and would enable her to regulate the Bojana River, thus making the Lake of Skutari accessible to coasting vessels and opening up new trade routes to the interior of her present territory. (It must be remembered that at present Montenegro's only connexion with the sea is by the unpractical little mountain railway from Antivari to Virpazar, where everything must be transhipped on to launches on the Lake of Skutari and landed again on the northern shore.)
The above solution would, of course, involve the conclusion of a Zollverein between the two Serb States, now for the first time united across the Sanja.k of Novibazar; but this already appears to form part of the intentions of the Balkan Allies. Any surviving reluctance on the part of Belgrade might be overcome by an international guarantee for the future railway.
In Vienna there is a certain tendency to veto the cession of Skutari to Montenegro and to favour its selection as the future capital of Albania, owing to its position as a centre of Austria's protégés, the Catholic Albanians. But it is more than doubtful whether Vienna would be well advised to pursue this policy ; for if Montenegro were to issue from the present war with virtually empty hands (and a few villages in the desolate Sanjak could never atone for the failure to acquire Skutari), the position of the Petrovitch dynasty would be seriously endangered. In other words, Austria-Hungary would be following a policy which might easily lead to the union of the two Serb States under a single crown, and a consequent further strengthening of Southern Slav sentiment on a Pan-Serb basis. Such a consummation can hardly be desired by Vienna—at least, so long as the position of the Southern Slays within the Habsburg Monarchy is complicated by Magyar absolutism in Croatia.
The eastern and southern frontiers of Albania do not present such thorny problems. A geographical line could be found from the Shar mountains south of Prizren to the Lake of Oehrida. Dibra and Koritza would thus both be rescued for the new Albania, while Castoria would become the north- west frontier town of Greater Greece, which would also annex the genuinely Greek district of Epirus, lying between Parga and Prevesa. Mr. Brailsford, in last week's Nation, has put forward cogent reasons for including Koritza and Janina within the new State, since whatever culture Albania possesses is to be found chiefly in the south-eastern districts. An additional reason of great importance is to be found in the existence of a considerable Coutzo-Vlach (or Roumanian) element in those very districts. The interests of the Coutzo- Vlachs urgently demand their inclusion in Albania, with whose population they have many ties, and where they would form a relatively enlightened and progressive element. Their abandonment to their enemies the Greeks would not only be a cruel injustice to one of the most interesting races of the Peninsula, but would be keenly resented by their kinsmen of the kingdom of Roumania, and might even embroil the latter with the Balkan League. It is at least allowable to express the hope that the Great Powers, with whose ambassadors will eventually rest the demarcation of the Albanian frontiers, will on the one hand give full considera- tion to Coutzo-Vlach interests, and on the other hand will secure to Montenegro the possibility of development on lines from which her present geographical situation debars her.—I
am, Sin 86c., SCOTIIS-VIATOR.
Previous page
