We will deal with the Albanian question in a little more detail here, more still out of practical needs than theoretical interests. The Albanian policy of our government ended with a defeat that demanded great sacrifices. The future will demand even greater sacrifices. The Serbian government’s policy of oppression against the Albanian people created conditions on Serbia’s western border which will allow neither peace nor a normal state in the near future. At the same time, Albania has thus been pushed into the arms of two great powers which have the greatest interests in the Western Balkans, and any strengthening of influence, no matter which capitalist state on the Balkan peninsula, means a real danger for Serbia and the normal development of all the Balkan peoples.
But in order to meet the practical objective, we must deal with the circumstances in Albania. This seems all the more necessary, firstly, because our press, in a crushing contest, tried to support an ill-informed and badly executed policy, thus spreading tendentious opinions about the Albanian people for months, even years, and secondly, because through such opinions the government also tried to justify its policy of subjugation in Albania.
More information about the conflicts of interest in this area of the Balkans should serve a more correct understanding of the circumstances in Albania and a better relationship between the Serbian and Albanian people. Especially the proletariat needs better information, whose most important task is to stand resolutely against the policy of oppression of the bourgeoisie and thus to show in a current, practical question how good and salutary the work of social democracy in the Balkans is in terms of friendship, alliance and the true community of all Balkan peoples.
If this booklet served as an encore to the historical task of the Social Democratic Parties in the Balkans, our modest expectations would already have been fulfilled.
Dimitrije Tucović
1 January 1914, Belgrade