Zog, Not Scanderbeg

Dead Bird. Railways, roads, steamships and sewers are signs of civilization, but they cost money. Last week, swart Ahmed Bey Zogu Mati, King of Albania, made an effective yet inexpensive gesture toward westernizing his troubled kingdom by decreeing that in future all of his subjects must give up the old Mohammedan custom of taking the name of the town or village in which they live, and adopt good European names. Setting the fashion, Albania's King dropped the village name of Mati, dropped the u from Zogu (u in Albanian means "bird") and adopted the simple, resounding title of King Zog.

Mansion Passion. Though Albania may lack roads, she should never lack for royal palaces. Last week Italian workmen and engineers, sent by King Zog's patron and protector, Dictator Mussolini, laid the foundations of a new royal palace, Zog's fifth, outside the grimy old capital city of Tirana. The building will cost more than one million dollars. His passion for mansions still unappeased, King Zog planned still a sixth palace in the ancient town of Kruga, home of Albania's 15th Century hero king, Scanderbeg the Great. Albanians recalled that at the time of King Zog's coronation last year, only the expressed intention of genuine Scanderbeg descendants to slit Zog's royal gullet dissuaded the new King from adopting the title of Scanderbeg II.

Another throne for the inveterate palace builder arrived last week from King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy. This throne, of solid walnut, is tastefully gilded, embellished with columns of liver-colored porphyry and allegorical figures of Justice & Power holding a large gilt crown. King Zog will sit upon the new throne in the new Summer Palace above Durazzo Bay.

To native Albanians, Zog's mansion-passion was understandable. They know that so many fire-eating Albanians have sworn to kill him that prudent Zog seldom appears outside his palaces. Life in even five palaces becomes cramping to an active man.

Methodist College. Gratefully, King Zog made a gift of 380 acres of land last week to Dr. Samuel Wesley, director of Methodist missions in Italy. Upon this land Methodist Wesley had offered to build a modern college to train Albanian teachers in U. S. Methodist methods of instruction. Funds for the faculty of the new college will come from famed Duke ("Bull Durham") University, North Carolina.

Another U. S. institution in Albania is the Tirana industrial school sponsored by the Junior American Red Cross. To aid this school, grateful King Zog last week presented 650 acres of land to U. S. Minister Charles Calmer Hart.

But, cramped though that life is, it is also a busy one. Up with the six o'clock-rising mountain eagles, King Zog sips steaming hot Turkish coffee, puffs on a Turkish cigaret, begins his day's work. From then on, except for ten minutes' exercise every two hours, he is at his desk in one of the palaces until midnight. His chief diversion is listening to U. S. phonograph records, played on a U. S. phonograph.