Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al/publishes an archival document issued by the Central State Archive dating back to 1936 and talks about a correspondence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, regarding the cooperation of the Yugoslav and Albanian communists , who through Llazar Fundos, had given 8 thousand gold francs to a communist from the city of Shkodra (with the surname Shpuza), to buy weapons in Albania and to send them to Yugoslavia via Lake Shkodra where it was carried out even tobacco smuggling.
The letter of the Yugoslav Legation in Tirana to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Albania, which, at the behest of the Belgrade government, asked the Tirana government to conclude a cooperation agreement for the exchange of information on the communist (Bolshevik) movement that took place between the two countries, as well as for the smuggling of weapons and tobacco that had begun to intensify greatly, between the two countries.
“In Shkodra, a man named Shpuza is an agent of communist organizations and deals with propaganda in favor of these organizations in northern Albania. The Yugoslav authorities have some indications that the above-mentioned is charged by the Montenegrin communists to buy weapons throughout Albania. A sum of 8,000 gold francs was handed over to the so-called Shpuza, a month and a half ago, by a person from Podgorica, who had received this money from Lazar Fundos, who is in charge of this organization for Albania and the Mountain of Black “.
This is stated, among other things, in an information report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Albania, sent to the Secret Office at the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tirana, in March 1936, where he was informed about the intensification of communist relations. Yugoslav and Albanian, and the request of the Yugoslav Legation in Tirana, which on behalf of its government, asked the Albanian government to conclude a bilateral agreement on the exchange of information on the communist (Bolshevik) movement between the two countries and preventing the smuggling of tobacco and weapons that they carried out through Lake Shkodra and Prespa. For more about this, let us know the document in question that is published for the first time and complete by Memorie.al
Document of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Albania, for the Secret Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
THE ALBANIAN KINGDOM
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tirana, on 16.III.1936
Below, we have the honor to communicate to her P.T. Ministries some information that was given to us privately by the Yugoslav Legation here:
Recently, an increase in relations between the communist elements of Yugoslavia (Montenegro and Macedonia) and those of Albania has been noted in Yugoslavia.
In Shkodra, a man named Shpuza is an agent of communist organizations and deals with propaganda in favor of these organizations in northern Albania.
The Yugoslav authorities have some indications that the above-mentioned is charged by the Montenegrin communists to buy weapons throughout Albania.
A sum of 8,000 gold francs was handed over to the so-called Shpuza, a month and a half ago, by a person from Podgorica, who had received this money from Lazar Fundos, who is in charge of this organization for Albania and the Mountain of Black.
This communist organization has as its publishing body in Albania, the newspaper “A.B.C.” and this news was confirmed by the communist elements of Yugoslavia.
Also, for months, the number of announcements containing the summary of the theories of Marx and Engels, entered Albania from the border through the villages of Lake Prespa.
Ministry of Interior (Secret Office)
Tirana
Minister of Foreign Affairs
(Firms)
Memorial
The Yugoslav Legation, at the behest of its Government, asks whether the Albanian government accepts a co-operation and an exchange of information pertaining to the Bolshevik movement in Yugoslavia and Albania.
The Yugoslav government has made such agreements with all the Balkan Entente and Lesser Entente countries, with Germany, France and Belgium.
The aim is for the two States to communicate to each other the harmful Bolshevik movements that may belong to one side or the other.
The Yugoslav Legation, at the request of its Government, and with an order to make a friendly verbal confrontation with the Royal Albanian Government, on the fact that for some time now, tobacco smuggling is intensifying on the Albanian-Yugoslav border and especially in the Shkodra Sector. The Yugoslav government understands that the smuggling of tobacco prices in Albania and Yugoslavia is being caused by this smuggling.
But, in her opinion, this intensification of propaganda is also related to the importation of weapons bought by the Bolsheviks or Montenegrin insurgents through their agents in Albania, weapons that are imported into Yugoslavia for harmful purposes. The fact that there is a convoy of 10 donkeys loaded with tobacco carrying 22 long rifles and caught at the Hoti border in late April proves the above. The Yugoslav government begs the Albanian border authorities to have a more finely in border guarding.
Gjono Prelevic, a Yugoslav citizen who has been a building entrepreneur for 10 years in Albania, has taken over the construction of the Yugoslav Legation building on the beach in Durrës. The police have ordered to leave the border for no reason. The Legation begs him to allow the above-mentioned to stay in Albania. /Memorie.al
