or of Kljesh,
has been in command of the artillery? A further proof that the Mirdite
movement has been engineered by the Southern Slavs is, in Mr. Fisher's
opinion, the damning fact that the Republic's Proclamation was composed
in Yugoslavia and dated there--how brazen some people are! And the
official Yugoslav Press Bureau has actually circulated the announcements
of the Mirdite Republic. The question is whether the Yugoslav Government
was more than benevolently neutral in thus assisting their guests at a
time when these had not yet got their machinery into working order. When
the Mirdite Government had made suitable arrangements it spoke to the
world through its representatives at Geneva or through direct
communications to the British and French Press. Surely, in considering
whether the Yugoslav Government allowed themselves to exceed the limits
of neutrality, one must remember that the Mirdite authorities at Prizren
were out of all touch with their own army, which was engaged in a
guerilla warfare. In conclusion, according to Mr. Fisher, the British
Foreign Office was persuaded that the Mirdite Republic was nothing but
an instrument of the Yugoslav Government, and that desire for Albanian
unity extended also to the Christians of that country. The Foreign
Office had, no doubt, been told that the Tirana Government received the
support, at last spring's elections, of some north Albanian deputies;
and possibly they gave no credence to the rumour that these gentlemen
were much indebted to Italian support. It may have been mere harmless
curiosity which kept Captain Pericone, the Italian commander, during all
that day at the Scutari polling-booths, but what is certain is that,
owing to the influx of Italian money, the value of a hundred silver
crowns in the morning was 92 lire, and in the afternoon had fallen to
75. It is likewise a fact that numerous Malissori, finding themselves
for the first time in possession of bundles of paper and feeling far
from confident that this was money, hurried off to the bazaar and spent
it all. Thus were the four friends of the Moslem-Italian[103] Government
elected, the four deputies who were in favour of Albanian unity under
that Government; three of them are Christians (Messrs. Fichta, Andreas
Miedia and Luigi Gurakuqi); one, Riza Dani, is a Moslem. How the latter
travelled to Tirana I do not know, but the three Christians found that
the population was so incensed against them that they cou