ALBANIA: Footloose Zog. - Time, Monday, June 19, 1933, електронен архив

ALBANIA: Footloose Zog

Time, Monday, June 19, 1933

To hog-tie Zog and make Albania an Italian protectorate was in 1927 the ambition of Benito Mussolini. Zog in those days was President of Albania. He was presently hog-tied with a crown. Albania under King Zog settled down to pleasant wildcat treasury squandering, made possible by yearly Italian loans which, conveniently, bore no interest. 

Last winter Il Duce felt he had King Zog sufficiently in debt to apply screws and force Albania into a customs union with Italy, prelude to annexation. Unexpectedly both France and England interfered (TIME, Jan. 16), forced the Dictator to back down. Since then Italy's convenient "loans" have stopped, King Zog has been tightening Albania's belt. Last week His Majesty said a stiff good-by to Italian General Pariani, long attached to the Albanian Government in the capacity of kibitzer extraordinary and unofficial boss (officially he was "Military Adviser to Albania"). Back to Italy also went Archbishop Delia Pietra to confer with Pope Pius XI about King Zog's recent bold closing of Italian schools throughout Albania. According to members of His Grace's entourage: "Albanians educated at Italian expense show a distressing tendency to remain Albanian in ideology."

For the first time in years swank little King Zog, strutting gold-laced at a military review last week, began to feel footloose.