No. 42.
Mr. Kasson
to Mr. Evarts.
Vienna, May 13, 1880. (Received May 26.)
Sir: In a previous dispatch (No. 320) I advised you of a growing cloud of war east of the Adriatic, which might bring trouble to the Austrian part of the Berlin treaty and seriously disturb the purposes of other powers. The development of events has been more rapid than was expected, and covers a larger field. It is not merely to retain the strip of territory given away without their consent that the Albanians have taken up arms. They have taken their national destiny into their own hands, and have asserted the independence of their race and territory against all comers. The Government of the Porte is repudiated, and the anti-Albanian decrees of the great powers are rejected.
The recent course of events, so far as the facts can now be gathered from a region so little in communication with Europe, is as follows: In a general assembly of Albanians held at Scutari about the 19th of April, to consider their situation and decide their line of action, there were many fierce and revolutionary speeches. One of the orators, an old [Page 56] chief named Hodo Bey, addressed the responsive audience in a speech of which only this outline has reached Vienna, whither it was sent by an Albanian of Scutari:
Honored Brothers of the Baschkini Skipetaris: The ministers assembled at Berlin acted from real or feigned ignorance of our country and its inhabitants when they sold us, us, the purest race and the most noble of the world, to a people of the mountains (Montenegro) which is found in the lowest degree of civilization, which has lived until now only upon the alms which it has demanded from the princes of Europe. We, the direct descendants of the king of the Arnauts, Iskander, [i. e., Alexander the Great], abandoned by all the world, surrounded by a band of hungry wolves lying in wait for their prey, we shall know how to defend ourselves and to honor the tombs of our fathers. We suppressed our grief and did violence to our most sacred sentiments when we delivered over to our enemy our brothers of Podgoritza and of Spucz. We will not now do anything to change by force the actual condition of things. But that was the last concession which we are ready to make. To-morrow our brothers, the Hotti, the Kastrati, and the Klemetti are to be delivered to the mercy of their enemies. Will you permit it? [The cry of “No!” from a thousand voices made response to this question. The old man continued:] No longer will I; I do not wish it. I, Hodo Bey, have for fifty years served the Sultans faithfully, but now, to day, that I know the resolution of the Sultan, I separate myself from him, and I recognize no longer neither Padishah nor Stamboul!
As he pronounced these words the fiery old man tore off the gold fringes of his uniform, tore off his numerous decorations, and threw them on the ground. The report says that many Turkish officers who were present at the assembly followed the examble of old Hodo Bey, tearing off the insignia of their rank, and their medals, and stamping upon them. The orator had not finished but proceeded.
We have no longer anything in common with the Padishah and those effendis of Stamboul. We will show, then, to the country what we really are. Bairaktar [standard bearer] of the tribe of Hotti, do your duty!
At this moment appeared upon the balcony a warrior of lofty figure and bronzed visage. They saw the glitter of a yataghan. He struck the cord by which the banner of the crescent was suspended, and slowly the standard of the Sultan descended to the dust. Then the old standard bearer of the Hotti with his vigorous arms threw out the new national colors, which bear upon a red field the springing lion of Albania. At sight of this wild acclamations burst out. Immediately the old Hodo Bey again spoke. He presented a picture in words equally seductive and eloquent of the situation, and enumerated their chances for success in the straggle in which they were about to engage. He said: “Of arms we have a profusion, and we will find enough hands to wield them. Of munitions we have sufficient to fight for several years. Money alone is wanting to us, for the Albanian is brave but poor.” Thereupon the chief of the corporation of merchants rose and announced that a syndicate of bankers at Scutari declared themselves ready to pay over each day 500 gold napoleons* into the hands of the commander-in-chief for the men actually under arms. The names of the bankers were given. It became then a question of choosing a commander-in-chief. Philip Seismit-Doda, brother of the Italian politician of the same name, proposed to avoid all religious dissension by choosing two commanders-in-chief, one Christian and one Mussulman. This was adopted, and Prenk Bib Doda was chosen for leader of the fighting Christians, and the old Colonel Hodo, above mentioned, for chief of the Mussulman combatants.
News from Scutari of the 7th of this month states that the official sheet Skodra was on that date for the first time published in Albanian as well as Turkish, and contained at the head of its columns a long [Page 57] proclamation of the league, and of the committee, proclaiming that Albania has ceased to be under the domination of the Sultan. All Turkish functionaries who are not of the Albanian nationality are deprived of their offices, and obliged to quit the country, with the exception of those who show themselves to be friends of the Sklipetares. The Albanian people, it is declared, henceforth owe obedience only to the orders of the league, and to the ancients of their clans who remain, as heretofore, their only lawgivers. The proclamation is signed by the military and religious chiefs, as well Mussulman as Christian, in the name of the notables and of the people.
Another dispatch of the same date states that one entire cantonment of Turkish troops has passed over to the league, and that the Albanians have seized the public bureaus, and turned out the Ottoman employés. Large numbers of Turkish troops are said to be deserting and going over to the Albanians.
If these relations are correct, and they appear to be authentic, as well as the logical sequence of prior events, a new state has risen with some vigorous elements of national life out of the chaos of Turkish Europe, It should not be regarded as one of the frequent insurrections against Ottoman rule. The proclamation of which I sent you a copy under date of the 5th instant shows how thoroughly the Albanian leaders appreciated their hopeless political situation. They had seen the aspirations of Greece, Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro ratified by Europe, and their territories augmented. They had seen the national individuality of the Bulgarians recognized, a prince given to them, and autonomy conferred upon Roumelia, and reforms stipulated for other provinces. For themselves they saw only neglect, and their territory on the north severed and assigned to the principalities, and on the south to Greece. The Porte consented to all this with an apparent weakness which nullified their hopes for future protection. The Ottoman Government, reduced to financial distress, and bound by its own engagements to Europe, connived at the local organization of the Albanians to resist the decrees of the Congress, and helped to supply them with arms and munitions for their operations. Now, in presence of Ottoman weakness and of the menacing pressure of Europe for the transfer of territory to Greece and Montenegro, the Albanian league turns these weapons against Turkey, stands at bay, and seeks to prove by its action that the Porte is powerless to execute the last demand of the allied powers; and, instead of relying, like the Christian nationalities, on European support, defies alike Europe and Turkey. They will challenge the sympathies if not the open friendship of the liberal world, even while increasing greatly the embarrassments of the signatory powers at Berlin.
Since the foregoing was written, news has arrived here from Scutari, under date of the 11th, which says that the movement of the tribes so far is not for absolute independence, but for a prince of their own, and an autonomous principality of which the Sultan shall be the Suzerain. At the same time the commander of the Turkish forces has withdrawn into the citadel at Scutari with his remaining troops to await re-enforcements, and this rather confirms the tenor of the previous dispatches.
I have, &c.,
- About $2,000.↩