Office of the Historian

875.00/503: Telegram

The Minister in Albania (Grant) to the Secretary of State

Tirana, April 24, 1939—8 p.m.
[Received April 25—3:10 a.m.]

54. Latest decisions of the Albanian Council of Ministers as announced in the official press are as follows: [Page 409]

1.
The Albanian Fascist Party is formed.
2.
Principal streets of Tirana are renamed for Italians including the King and Queen of Italy and Count Ciano.
3.
Mussolini is given the title of “the first honorary citizen of all Albania” with the following explanation “His Excellency the head of the Italian Government in the historic moments of the Albanian nation designed to show his love for Albania to which he did not deny the sacred rights of a sovereign and independent state which the people has preserved as his invaluable treasure.”
4.
Count Ciano is given the title “honorary citizen of the capital because in the historic moments of the Albanian people he was an indivisible collaborator and faithful interpreter of the thoughtfulness which the great Duce of Fascism has shown for the preservation of the sovereignty and independence of the Albanian nation.”
5.
All government employees must give the Fascist salute.
6.
The law courts and notary offices shall judge and issue verdicts and other acts in the name of His Majesty Vittorio Emmanuel III King of Italy and Albania and Emperor of Ethiopia.
7.
Albania will participate in the exposition at Budapest.
8.
The Ministry and Inspector of the Royal Court are abolished.

Grant