A military movement of Albanians, which seems to have been
in preparation for some time, is giving serious trouble to Servia and Mofitenegro, and engaging indirectly the anxiety of every Power which has interests in the Balkans. Nearly all the news is from Servian sources and must be discounted to some extent, but unless the exaggeration is gross, fighting is going on along the whole line from the Lake of Scutari to the Lake of Ochrida. It is said that the Albanians have seized Dibra, Struga, Kritchevo, and Djakova. There are rumours that Essad Pasha, the defender of Scutari, has broken away from the Provisional Government of Albania and raised the Crescent. The Servians profess to believe that the Albanian rising is fomented by Bulgarians. Another report says that Turkish troops in disguise are scheming for the recovery of more territory in Thrace. We attach more importance, on the whole, to the behaviour of Turkey than to the rising of the Albanians. Servia should be able to guard her frontier without substantially upsetting the new arrange- ment of the Balkans. But if Turkish intrigue is actively at work the outlook is much more serious. We have written elsewhere of the two paths, the right and wrong, along one of which Turkish policy will have to move.
