1938: Albania

For Albania 1938 has been an epochal year. Overshadowing all other events in this little Adriatic country was the marriage on April 27 of King Zog and Countess Geraldine Apponyi, a twenty-two year old Hungarian who is half American. A civil ceremony was performed, inasmuch as the bride remained a Catholic while her husband is a Moslem. There were joyous celebrations at Tirana, at which, significantly enough, Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian foreign minister, was the most important foreign guest.

Immediately prior to the wedding, on April 21, a new agreement between Italy and Albania was added to the list of prior treaties under which the Fascist régime has cemented its domination over the entrance to the Adriatic Sea. Since 1920 Italian loans have been poured into the country and used for development purposes. Under the new arrangement, arrears in Albania's repayments amounting to 69,000,000 gold lire were wiped out, and Albania will repay the principal alone in the next fifteen years. At the same time, fishing rights are granted to an Italian controlled company which may employ armed guards. As a result Mussolini retains a dominant military and political position in Tirana.

Despite numerous rebellions against his authority, King Zog has managed to increase the political stability of the country. On September 3, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his reign, he granted amnesty to all political refugees abroad and freed a number of political prisoners. Several Albanians living in America were included in the amnesty; in March, three Albanian princesses — Myzejen, Ruhie and Maxhide — had visited the United States and apparently arranged for a reconciliation between Zog and Bishop Fan Noli, who was held responsible for a revolution in Albania in 1924. [On April 7, 1939, Italian troops invaded Albania, which was conquered and formally annexed by Italy a few days later.]