ALBANIA WITHOUT ALBANIANS

From time to time the thick curtain which veils Albania and her present dark developments is pierced by some sudden light. By now clear indications appear that Russia’s plan, so far, disguised under an ideological attire of social progress, is being carried on mathematically and inexorably in that unfortunate country. The strategical importance of Albania induces the Russians to take drastic measures to gain control of the country that gives their unbridled imperialism the possibility of reaching the Mediterranean.

But Albania is inhabited by a race not Slav, therefore unreliable, always easy to be influenced by ideologies extraneous or even hostile to the Slav soul, this immense soul which stretches from Albania’s northern border to the steppes of Siberia. Hence the ferocious, scientifically conceived decision to liquidate as many Albanians as possible, replacing them with faithful Slav elements. The Russians want an Albania without Albanians. Everything now leads us to the belief that the stage of extermination has begun. Hurriedly set up political courts deal out continuous death sentences, which are carried out at once. In mountain areas, where the fierce Malissori clans live, where resistance against the Slav invader still has epic aspects (that unfortunately today do not draw the attention of the world, overwhelmed by general insensibility), the methods of suppression are expeditious; entire villages are massacred at one time for the most absurd reasons.

Neither do the veteran local Communists, those who have devoted a whole life to bring to power a regime inspired by Moscovite ideas, try to evade the implacable decision to wipe out the far from numerous Albanian race. The murder, in the midst of a Cabinet meeting, of the young Minister Nako Spiro, just back from Moscow where he was received with great cordiality (he had the honor to be received by Stalin himself), is evident proof that no merit acquired in the preparation to struggle, as well as in partisan warfare, can cause to be forgotten the demerit of being Albanian and therefore in the way in Albania.

The systematic extermination is to be obtained first of all by the poor nutriment imposed on the Albanians. The bad cornbread which is sold, bread which is stale the day after it is baked, a kind of food even animals refuse, is causing a frightful increase of mortality, especially among children. The forced labor of young boys and girls employed at tasks too heavy for their years, causes every day new breaks in the ranks of the so-called voluntary laborers. The dead are buried in haste, and the inexorable mechanism of Soviet recruitment fills the vacant places with other young people torn from their families and condemned to live and work in the worst condition of hygiene and in the most shameful promiscuity.

The total number of voluntary laborers never decreases, even if the cemeteries along the roads where the laborers work continue to be enlarged.

A short bit of news broadcast a few evenings ago from radio Tirana throws a sudden light on the ultimate aims of the USSR in Albania. The radio said that Russian agricultural experts are surveying the area between Valona and Santi Quaranta, and that sunflower cultivation gave excellent results this year. Sunflowers, a typical Russian crop, in Albania? This seems to mean a settlement of Russian colonists between Valona and Santi Quaranta, in the area from which Albanians have been removed, under the pretext of the Greek war. This is, in its flat reality, Moscow’s goal to empty Albania of Albanians and put tens of thousands of Russians in their place; these Russians should give Russia full and secure control of the Otranto channel, the key position that allows her to by-pass the Dardanelles and attain the long-desired outlet to the Mediterranean.