further from my desire than to engage in what used to be known as
"muck-raking," but I am reporting what I saw and heard in Albania
because I believe that the American people ought to know of it. Taken in
conjunction with the behavior of the Greek troops in Smyrna in the
spring of 1918, it should better enable us to form an opinion as to the
moral fitness of the Greeks to be entrusted with mandates over backward
peoples.

Though Albania is an Italian protectorate, the Albanians, in spite of
all that Italy is doing toward the development of the country, do not
want Italian protection. This is scarcely to be wondered at, however, in
view of the attitude of another untutored people, the Egyptians, who,
though they owe their amazing prosperity solely to British rule, would
oust the British at the first opportunity which offered. Though the
Italians are distrusted because the Albanians question their
administrative ability and because they fear that they will attempt to
denationalize them, the French are regarded with a hatred which I have
seldom seen equaled. This is due, I imagine, to the belief that the
French are allied with their hereditary enemies, the Greeks and the
Serbs, and to France's iron-handed rule, which was exemplified when
General Sarrail, commanding the army of the Orient, ordered the
execution of the President of the short-lived Albanian Republic which
was established at Koritza. As a matter of fact, the Albanians, though
quite unfitted for independence, are violently opposed to being placed
under the protection of any nation, unless it be the United States or
England, in both of which they place implicit trust. I was astonished to
learn that the few Americans who have penetrated Albania since the
war--missionaries, Red Cross workers, and one or two investigators for
the Peace Conference--have encouraged the natives in the belief that the
United States would probably accept a mandate for Albania. Whether they