The Future of the Albanian State Author(s): J. S. Barnes Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Jul., 1918), pp. 12-27 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1779856 Accessed: 11-06-2016 12:10 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley, The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 132.174.255.116 on Sat, 11 Jun 2016 12:10:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 12 THE FUTURE OF THE ALBANIAN STATE known until lately as the Hon. T. F. Fremantle, who has been for twenty years an active member of the Society, and who is an authority on all matters connected with the rifle; Dr. Corney, formerly Principal Medical Officer in Fiji, who has been a lifelong student of problems in the Pacific; and an old friend, Dr. Aubrey Strahan, Director of the Geological Survey, and formerly the Chairman of our Research Committee?a most useful Councillor for re-election. I trust that these distinguished gentlemen will all meet with your approval. THE FUTURE OF THE ALBANIAN STATE Captain J. S. Barnes, R.F.C. Read at the Meeting of the Soeiety, 8 April 1918. I. The Boundaries THE in followingme by two paper expeditions is the final which outcome I undertook of an interestsuccessively first in aroused 1911. The first penetrated into Albania from Dures (Durazzo) to Tirane, the stronghold of Essad Toptani Pasha, and to Kruje, the ancient capital of Skanderbeg; the second consisted in a rapid journey from Vlore (Vallona) to Ghinokastre (Argirocastro) and up into the Drinopol valley, close to the southern boundary where Albanian meets Greek. Beyond these districts I have no first-hand acquaintance with Albania; but my personal experiences there, however limited, have at least enabled me to take a more intelligent and critical interest in the authorities I have consulted, when I came to make a study of Albanian problems, than I should other- wise have done. I have had singular opportunities, too, in Italy of meeting travellers intimately acquainted with Albania, such as Herr Hassert and Captain Castoldi; and of discussing Albanian questions with Italian statesmen and with the Marquis di San Giuliano in particular, who had himself visited the country on more than one occasion. The names in this paper of places within Albania according to the Treaty of London, 1913, are spelled in accordance with the map pub- lished by the Albanian Soeiety (Brussels, 1910). The conventional (usually Italianized) spellings are given in brackets on the first mention of the name. The names outside Albania of 1913 are spelled as on the Sofiya sheet of the i/M map, first edition. The claims of Albania to be regarded as a distinct people, with national traditions and ideals peculiar to themselves and deserving of recognition, have been formally acknowledged by Europe as a whole, including the Central Powers, at the Ambassadors' Conference held in London during the winter of 1912-13, which gave birth to the new State. Her claims are indisputable, and are only disputed by certain parties This content downloaded from 132.174.255.116 on Sat, 11 Jun 2016 12:10:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE FUTURE OF THE ALBANIAN STATE 13 selfishly interested in her dismemberment, or by people who fail to dis- tinguish between what is meant by self-determination and the question whether or not a people is fitted here and now to take complete charge of its own destinies. Whether Albania is so fitted is a question which will be discussed in its proper place; but whatever the answer may be it cannot affect her indefeasible right to national unity and to separate national organization. The Albanians, or Shkipetar as they are proud to call themselves, are descendants of the original inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula, who, like our own Britons driven before successive incursions from the East, have taken refuge among the mountain fastnesses of the West. Here they have succeeded through the centuries in maintaining their ancient language, their national customs, their virtual independence. No people in Europe have proved themselves more resistant to efforts of assimilation; and if in many ways they are still barbarians, it is because they have suffered the double disadvantage of forming part of a corrupt and stagnant Empire, cut off during the past five hundred years from all contact with progressive Europe; and of having lived in a constantstateofinstability and insecurity on the very fringe of that Empire, which, though strong enough to encom- pass them, was nevertheless not strong enough to subdue them. Now there is every reason to suppose that, secure in the possession of its own land, the race which gave birth to Pyrrhus and Alexander, to Skanderbeg and Lek Ducaghin; which in more modern times has furnished Turkey and even Greece * and Italy f with eminent statesmen, sailors, and soldiers; and which has justly earned a reputation for courage, industry, and integrity, will before long amply justify its title to recognition and autonomy. " The future of Albania, this new-comer into the circle of European Governments, will depend on the skill with which its boundaries are drawn. Expediency and not strict justice has always ruled the decisions of the Great Powers, who are the final Court of Appeal in such matters, but if a mistaken idea of what seems to be the easiest way is allowed to prevail, and if the land greed of the neighbouring states is permitted to supplant the natural and ethnical frontiers by boundaries inspired by earth-hunger, then the Near Eastern Question, so far from being settled, will only be shifted to another phase, and the Slav will stand out as the oppressor of nationalities in the Balkans in the place of the Turk." J The boundaries of Albania drawn up by the Conference of Ambassadors in 1913 were the result of a compromise between the claims put forward by Greece and Serbia and those urged on behalf of Albania by Austria and * Admiral Miaulis and many other heroes in the struggle for Greek Independence were either Albanians or of Albanian extraetion. t The famous Italian statesman, Crispi, was of Albanian extraetion. | * Albania,' by Wadham Peacock, formerly H.B.M. Charge d'affairsin Montenegro and Consul-General in North Albania (1914). This content downloaded from 132.174.255.116 on Sat, 11 Jun 2016 12:10:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 14 THE FUTURE OF THE ALBANIAN STATE Italy. N^either one side nor the other was actuated by any but interested motives; and the resulting compromise was never anything more than a makeshift diplomatic expedient to avoid what might otherwise have pre- cipitated the great European conflict. Except for the southern boundary between Albania and Greece determined by the International Commission presided over by Lieut.-Colonel Doughty Wylie in 1913,110 serious attempt at all was made to draw boundaries in accordance with either ethnical or economic principles. The natural sympathy felt for Serbia, deprived after two brilliantly successful wars of the very object for which she went to war?a free outlet to the sea; the fear of Great Britain and France of alienating the friendship of Russia; and in all probability also a sad ignorance of facts, each contributed to a solution which both in its Albanian and Macedonian aspects held in itself the germs of future trouble. The war, however, has not only removed many misconceptions; it has created a better atmosphere. Victory will untie our hands for the making of a solution which, if we stick to our principles, should prove also a permanent settlement. The first and fundamental principle here to be taken into consideration in the task of boundary delimitation is that of Nationality, which in the case of Albania happily coincides with race and language, and is not further complicated by the question of religion.* Economic, commercial, and strategical considerations must also be taken into account. The whole is essentially a geographical problem. All doubtful points should be referred in the last resort to a purely geographical solution. In regard to the first principle?to use the words of a recent contributor on the * Miss Edith Durham, writing in 1909, observed that until quite recently fights between Moslem and Catholic have been all either inter-tribal or "blood," just as between Christian and Christian or Moslem and Moslem. " Religion has not been more of an excuse for fighting than have other things. Only quite lately have Moslems persecuted Christians as Christians. This is because the Moslem sees that Catholicism is the thin end of the wedge for a foreign invader?to wit, Austria. He has no particular quarrel with Catholicism as such, but foreign rule, disguised as Catholicism, he will resist as long as he can stand and see" ('High Albania,). These remarks tally with my own experience and with that of other travellers I have consulted. In Southern Albania an exact parallel exists in the relations between the Moslem and Orthodox Creeds where the latter is only too often regarded as disguised Hellenism.