communication with the world: Lisbon, the Atlantic capital; Barcelona, the Mediterranean capital; Bilboa, the Cantabrian capital; and Cadiz, a capital destined to a great future by its maritime proximity to the future routes between America and the east coast of Africa. If in the independence movement of Catalonia there is any germ of this idea, no Spaniard wise to the future of his country will hesitate to give it his warmest support. WARNING TO CENTRALISTS Yet the Catalans hold the possibility of complete separation in abeyant reserve should that federalism prove tardy or impracticable and feudal exactions become too onerous. Absolute separation has been battled for with arms and ideas on many a historic occasion. Through the centuries the advocates of complete separation have spread their propaganda. One notable warning directed to the Centralists has echoed and re-echoe: through Spain for twenty years. On the heels of the Spanish-American war, when the country was smarting from the loss of Cuba and the Philippines, and when serious disturbances were occurring in Catalonia, Spain's great Liberal, Pi y Margall, published in El Nuevo Regimen Dec. 29, 1900, a clarion call of alarm. The Catalans have never forgotten its stimulating peroration: Ah, impenitent Centralists! Have you so soon forgotten the errors that resulted in the loss of Cuba? By the same errors you are endangering the integrity of the patria. By our Federal system we would guarantee integrity; with your system you are ceaselessly weakening all bonds of union. Every unwarranted attack is a destructive blow against an already crumbling wall. If the day comes that Catalonia rises against Spain, yours, mistake it not, will be the blame! Then and since, the eyes of Catalonia have been turned toward France. French troops helped the Catalans in the seventh century, and during the recent World War the Catalans were enthusiastically proFrench in contrast to the violent proGermanism of Madrid. The leaders of Barcelona's economic life would prefer a union with industrialized France to the present uncertain chaos. The root of these difficulties is economic. Beneath an inherited Roman super-state centralism that has precluded all exercise of democracy, Spain has been riveted to intellectual and social backwardness, crushed to a condition of slothful inertia-singularly isolated from ail the forward-looking movements of Western Europe. Even the Napoleonic conquest, which plowed up the dead earth of feudalism and exposed it to the sunlight of the new times, could not cut deep into the ecclesiastical power of Spain, or destroy the traditional growth of poder that clung to Church, State and law. The upper house is quite nonrepresentative; the elections to the lower house are effectively controlled by illiteracy and caciquismo-local bossism. The Government of Spain is feudal and bureaucratic. It is more. SPAIN'S MEDIEVAL INCUBUS Madrid is the rallying point for all feudal interests. Hence Madrid is moribund, degenerate, repulsive. The lower class, with a diet one-fourth that of the British worker, is in Madrid more brutalized and servile than in any other part of the country. The middle class, consisting largely of Government clerks and petty officials, apes the decadent vices of the aristocracy. The aristocracy is vile, diseased and vapidly ignorant. Only too clearly has Jacinto Benavente, in his "La Comida de las Ferias," with bleak, cynical strokes pictured it as sucking the life-blood of a Spain whose social structure hangs on the precipice of anarchy. Many of the clergy are the nadir of indecency. Degeneracy also pervades every department of Government, so that a ter rible ecclesiastical, medieval incubus weights the back of every individuai in Spain. But around the fringe, the periphery, has grown up a semi-modernized Spain. In the bustling seaports -Corunna, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Viga, Cadiz, Valencia, Barcelonaanother type of Spaniard is encountered-aggressive, untutored, but not degenerate. The Catalans are the most alert of all; frugal and closefisted like the French; energetic and purposeful like the Americans. Catalonia is the most vigorous of these outlying areas. Barcelona is the greatest industrial centre and mart of Spain. Furthermore, the Mediterranean is again the courtesan of the empires. This new Cleopatra offers with herself the newly discovered oil and mineral lands of the Near East and the Caucasus regions, and the control of the Orient. In Italy the risorgimento was not checked by the war. The troubled, slate-cliffed Adriatic, reaching a long arm up to the heart of Europe, assumes a new economic importance in the councils of the nations. Today an industrialized Barce lona is prepared to dominate the Ligurian Sea and the western end of the Mediterranean. This prosperity. the Catalans declare they cannot enjoy as long as they must submit to the exactions of the decadent Government of Castile.. Thus feudal and industrial Spain are in open and violent opposition. Industrialized Spain wishes to secede from medieval Spain, to slough off the leadership of the inefficient, parasitical Madrilenan bureaucracy, which has no interest in modern industrial activity and watches Catalan enterprise with sullen suspicion and jealousy when it is not actually fomenting disorder and devising new and irksome restrictions upon industrial expansion. The proof of the economic character of this split is also to be found in the fact that the supporters of the home-rule movement are restricted to the bourgeoisie and the better middle class. The labor movement of the BLACK AREA IN THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF SPAIN REPRESENTS THE PROVINCE OF CATALONIA, AND THE SHADED SECTION ADJOINING SHOWS THE REST OF THE REGION WHICH THE CATALAN LEADERS DESIRE TO SET UP AS A SEPARATE STATE province is bitterly aloof from both contestants. It is anarchistic and syndicalistic. Its weapons are the terror, assassination, sabotage, the general strike; its goal, the world industrial revolution. More than one factory owner, more than one State official, more than one guardia civil has been snuffed out by bomb, revolver or knife with the cry flung in the face of the world that "all the blood of the bourgeoisie will not satisfy us for the blood of our slaughtered comrades." The syndicalists, on the other hand, when the Centre does permit them the license to make war on the Catalan manufacturers, are shot down by hundreds, their legal advisers assassinated at their doors, and their leaders deported or flung into the holds of musty frigates to be beaten by the leaded knout and stretched on the iron wheel in queer loyalty to the memory of Torquemada and the honesty of the fantastiçal cartoons of Goya. Thus Catalonia is engulfed in a constant tempest of violence, a threecornered conflict that has blindly de generated into terror, riot and assassination. The syndicalists battle with the patronos, with the central feudalism, and with the home-rule movement. The bourgeoisie battle against the paralyzing extortion of the Centre, even in the hour that it accepts its aid against the syndicalists. The Central Government battles with syndicalist, Catalan Nationalist, and the light of modern Europe. The Centre knows no remedy except through the time-honored instrument of force; the Catalan bourgeoisie fear any revolution that will undermine the Spanish State, seeing the solution in a war of secession that they shall control; the syndicalists discountenance all government, and with the flame of Russia across the Pyrenees see the only hope in industrial revolution. Three formless despotisms heaped together on the scales of human aspiration and selfishness! The few sane lovers of democratic processes look impotently on, praying for reason and peaceful, evolutionary processes-ere the wall completely crumble. FRENCH JUSTICE IN CAMEROON FRANCE, it has often been said, and with some ground of justice, is not a good colonizing nation, in contrast with Great Britain, which has been declared to be the best colonizing nation in the world. There are evidences, however, that France is seeking to emulate the example of her neighbor across the Channel. One of these evidences is a decree issued on April 13, 1921, the result of which has been only recently published. This decree concerned itself with the organization of justice in Cameroon. Its main novelty consisted in its provisions for the trying of all accused natives-not French citizens-in their own districts, and before tribunals of their own race, presided over by the head official of each district. In this way the natives are to be spared the long absences from their native villages formerly necessitated by a journey to the chief city, often situated at a considerable distance. The rights of the accused natives are to be guaranteed in various ways and all local customs respected. The various races are to be differentiated and treated accordingly. Any penalty above three years' imprisonment is to be referred to a special tribunal sitting at Douala. The Paris Temps in its issue of Aug. 17, 1921, stated that reports from Cameroon indicated that excellent results had already been attained from the operation of this new judicial system and that the reforms instituted bade fair to be permanent. So the world progresses and the idealistic doctrine scattered broadcast upon the waters of international polity by the United States declaring that mandates and protectorates should not be devices of arbitrary exploitation, but rather instruments of humane and enlightened administration, is bearing fruit even in what was once the Dark Continent. OF INDEPENDENCE BY CONSTANTINE A. CHEKREZI Commissioner of Albania to the United States Story of the new nation's vicissitudes during and since the Peace Conference-How the Albanians cast off the Italian military yoke and established an independent Government at TiranaRecently recognized and admitted by the League of Nations HE month of September, 1921, marked the completion of one year of real independence for Albania. It is quite true that she had been proclaimed independent as far back as 1912, but her autonomy was a theory rather than an actual condition. The fact is that from 1912 to 1920 Albania went through a series of tribulations and crises that were more or less incompatible with the status of national sovereignty. Prior to the advent to her throne of the Prince of Weid (March 7, 1914), the area of free Albania was less than one-fifth of her actual territorial possessions; under his government, her lot became all the more pitiful, for the Prince soon showed himself to be a mere puppet of Austria and Italy. After his departure from the country, the Governmental authority was usurped by Essad Pasha, the Adventurer, who would have fitted into the darkest moments of the Middle Ages. And then there came the barbaric inroads of the belligerents in the World War. The Peace Conference, finally, went so far in denying the right of the Albanian Nation to independence as to partition her twice in succession, the last time in January, 1920. When the Albanians heard of this second partition, an overwhelming wave of indignation swept through the population, and inasmuch as Italy herself had agreed to the project of partition in violation of the most solemn pledges, the wrath of the people was turned against the Italian forces, who occupied Valona. It was then that a national convention met at Lushnja, in defiance of the armed opposition of these troops. The convention formed a new Government and informed the powers that Albania would fight to the last man in order to save the country. In an address to the Italian Parliament and Government, the convention stated emphatically that there was enough blood left in the Albanians' veins to avenge the betrayal. The whole country was in a state of feverish excitement, and bloody encounters between the Italian troops and the natives were taking place every day, duplicating the recent events in Ireland. The Albanian Government, believing that the whole question would be reconsidered by the Peace Conference, had refrained from declaring war; yet this same Government unwittingly precipitated the crisis. THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE It had been left to Italy to determine the extent of the hinterland of Valona, but so far the Italians had left the whole matter in the dark in the hope that some favorable turn would enable them to extend the hinterland as much as possible. Natu rally enough, the Albanian Government-which had already won such prestige at home that, even though the country was under the military administration of Italy, the Albanian people ignored this military authority and paid their taxes to their national authorities-had no means of knowing how far the limits on the hinterland went. In the belief that the town of Tepelen, some ninety kilometers south of Valona, was not included in the hinterland, the Government appointed a subprefect for the Province of Tepelen, in compliance with the wishes of her inhabitants. The entry of the subprefect in the town of Tepelen was to be an elaborate State affair organized by the people themselves. He was to enter the city with a troop of Albanian volunteers just arrived from America, who had brought with them their own musical band from Worcester, Mass. Tirana, where the Government was sitting, was far off and without any communications; it could not foresee that such a trivial matter as the appointment of a subprefect to a province that was not supposed to be contested by the Italians would precipitate a war. The subprefect, the volunteers and the musical band arrived before the town on May 25 without the slightest intimation that the Italians would resist. As soon as the marching volunteers, with the band playing national airs, reached the gates of Tepelen, the forts began belching forth fire from their guns, to the utter confusion of the untrained volunteers. Little by little, however, they recovered their wits and rallied their forces. They cut the Italian communications off from the other military stations, and laid siege to the town. Ten days later the Italian garrison surrendered with arms, guns and ammunition, and everything else they possessed fell into the hands of the Albanian volunteers, who had, in the meantime, been reinforced by the native population. This was the outbreak of the war with Italy. When informed of the occurrence, the Government of Tirana laid the blame on the Italians, rightly enough, because it was they who had opened fire on the unsuspecting Albanians. This unexpected initial victory fired with enthusiasm the whole Albanian people. On June 5 various leaders of the Province of Valona held a secret meeting at Mavrova, ten kilometers outside of Valona, and, having been duly prepared for the emergency, sent an ultimatum to the Italian General in command of the forces of occupation, demanding that he evacuate and surrender Valona within twenty-four hours. Obviously, this was a most foolhardy action. The Italian commander prepared the city for defense. On June 6 the Albanians launched a furious attack. They fought with the bravery inspired by despair and by the grim determination to die or succeed. One by one the outer lines of defense fell into the hands of the attackers, who got over the barbed-wire entanglements by stepping on their heavy woolen coats, which they stretched over the wires. A more daring undertaking cannot be conceived. They even penetrated into the town of Valona itself, to be repulsed only by the broadside fire of the Italian warships anchored in the port. The fighting spread now throughout Albania. At last the Italian Government dispatched Baron Carlo Aliotti to Albania to open peace negotiations, but after many days of diplomatic bickering on the one hand and successful fighting on the other he was recalled because of his intriguing actions. Count Enrico Manzoni succeeded him, and the protocol suspending hostilities and providing for the withdrawal of the Italian troops from Albania, including Valona, was signed at Tirana on the second day of August, 1920. The conflict thus came to an end. The Italians evacuated the territories they held, and Valona was surrendered on Sept. 27 to the newly appointed Albanian Governor, Kiazim Koculi, Commander-in-Chief of the forces operating in the sector of |