Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 309, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1918 — ITALY in ALBANIA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ITALY in ALBANIA

ITALIAN military operatidns in Albania may or may not bear fruit, but the benefits of Italian occupation will prove lasting. In more than one respect the satisfaction which Italians have always found in likening themselves to the ancient Romans is justified. For’the Romans possessed a certain quality which one can call by no better name than civilizing genius. Where Rome passed Roman footprints still linger indelibly, says Edgar Ansel Mowrer in a letter to the Chicago Daily News. Though the empire of Trajan is less than a memory, the Roman road, the Roman bridge, the Roman building or wall have lasted long after other later constructions have crumbled into sand, for the reason that the least of the Roman enterprises the “Roman idea,” one of the strongest conceptions European humanity has known. Those old stern soldiers and governors civilized and embellished the peoples and lands they ruled. But they not only built cities and pushed roads to the ends of the earth wherever the cohorts advanced but more enduring cities, more substantial bridges and better roads than this earth had seen before or has known since. Modern Italy has inherited much of the “Roman idea.” Italy today shares the old love for bureaucratic government, for order, for solid construction outwearing the mere “utilitarian” product, for in its way Italy hankers after the same vicarious immortality of lasting monuments which possessed the builders of ancient temple and basilica. And, like the legions of long ago, the Italian army of today advances ’to civilize and builds for an entire age. Ample evidence for this statement may be found in the roads and “military works” at the Italian front, but, better still, In the occupied territories of southern Albania, which Italy has either taken for itself, as Avlona, or Is holding for the barely conceived state of Albania, whose approaching birth it has so sententiously announced. Only to a limited degree can this work of amelioration be attributed to any but generous motives. Race That Does Not Progress. Southern Albania, a rough, wild tract of sparsely cultivated land, is

thinly inhabited by an old race, the so-called Toski, forming the southern branch of the Albanian family. The district has been conquered more than once, but it has always remained somewhat backward. During the civil wars in ancient Rome, a number of old soldiers and other partisans of the beaten factions, migrated thither. But their number was too small to enable them to give durable backbone to the indigines, who, though wild, have rarely managed to present any organized resistance to an invader. For “the Toski do not apparently share the admirable love of independence of the northern Albanians. , They are Indeed a. mild race and unless pushed to hopelessness by extraordinary oppression easy to govern. And, Strangely . enough, all the Albanians, though they prove themselves in foreign lands amid other surroundings to be a quick-witted people, capable of many things, though they obviously possess many* of the major virtues, have at home remained essentially semibarbarous. Today, though they do not oppose, they do almost nothing to aid the Italians in their great work of transforming the country, and their general Wnpassivlty Is rather like a which the civilizers must constantly be lifting and moving from one place to another. First Census Since Augustus. Space is lacking for more than a brief survey _of the, - accomplished works. First of -all, it is fitting to apeak of administration. The entire occupied region north of the London frontier has been divided on the Italian model into the province of Avlona.

the protince>of Argirokastron and the district (clrcondario) of Chimara, with a total population Of 165,459 persons, almost equally divided between t the Moslem and the orthodox The census upon which the ure is based is the first to be taken in Albania since the great census of Augustus, made some I*9oo years ago. Combined Italian and native courts were Instituted and as a resjilt, the classic Albanian feud rendered superfluous, hence illegal. Schools for little children have been opened throughout -the country, in number 124, with 194 “teachers. Civil police service distinct from ordinary military surveillance has been organized with fl view to granting as large a liberty as is compatible to the ■civilians. The horrid Turkish prisons were in some cases abolished, in others thoroughly sanitized. New buildings will soon be erected. Coastal navigation between Albanian ports and linking them to nearby Corfu is encouraged within the limits of naval exigencies.' Customs offices with coast patrols are already in operation and all t;he money taken In is spent in improving the country. Vast hygienic measures are being carried out. For the better supervision of the varied services pertaining to civil administration a secretaryship for civil affairs was instituted. It is defined as “the organ through which his excellency, General Ferrero, exercises his powers of watchfulness, control and guardianship over the vast field of state and autonomous administration.” The office issues periodical reports, to one of which'!" am thankful for most of the Information herein contained. The secretary, Count Hugo Capialbi, is an enthusiastic worker. Making Over Ancient Cities. A list of all the various things 'accomplished would read like a circular advertisement for a new western town, of a recently opened suburb. The ports of Avloqa and Satti Quaranta have been literally transformed by piers, .sheds, warehouses, various administrative buildings. A general survey of the entire country has been made and soon a new map will appear, corrected to the slightest detail. At Avlona the port isjinked to the nearby camps and military positions by

more than ninety kilometers of Decauville nai-row gauge railroad. There are two ice factories, for the hospitals, an electric power plant, limekilns. Various existing buildings have been made over and serve as prefecture, as central office for the military engineers engaged in civil works, as post office, courthouse, agricultural office and civil affairs building. Within a short time a new customs office, public slaughter house, covered markets, town hall and courthouse will be built v ' The transformation of Avlona Seemed, at first beyond human capacity. Only those who have seen something of the orient will appreciate the filth, the tortuous plan, the general baseness of this semioriental port as it was before this war, as it had been for centuries, as it might always have been, it seems, had not some newcomer arrived to make the, herculean at--tempt to clean these truly Augean stables. But fortune favored the new-’' comers. A fire burned out the old market and the center of town. Austrian aviators destroyed many of the surrounding dwellings. u A, great open space was left in the very spot where the hopeless bazaars had once stood. To the Italians an open spot and leave to build on it are all a man needs to enjoy perfect bliss. They set up temporary bazaars and set to work. From boildings of immediate need they have passed to monuments and a plan la now on foot to adorn the new publiCi square with a /all clock tower and adequate fountains, for which a new aqueduct four miles long has been constructed and . another la about to ba built. J

Harbor of Durazzo.

Op the Albanian Coast