ALBANIA: By Remote Control

Albania (pop. 1,100,000) is the most obscure, backward and isolated country behind the Iron Curtain. The best place to find information about life inside the small Red satellite these days is neighboring Yugoslavia. After a trip to Yugoslavia, TIME Correspondent Robert Lubar cabled:

ALONG the marshy banks of Lake Scutari on the Yugoslav-Albanian border, red-kerchiefed shepherdesses tend their flocks, and on the lake, fishermen in shallow wooden canoes spear fish with steel-tipped lances. Across the lake it is possible to see the outlines of the Albanian city of Scutari (pop. 29,000). That is just about the only view an outsider can get of Albania today, but from the stories that drift across the frontier, it is possible to piece together a more accurate picture. Albania is the only satellite state which is not joined geographically to the Soviet family. Tito’s Yugoslavia separates Albania from Communist Bulgaria and the other Russian satellites. This makes it hard for Russia to run the country, and the Russians do their best to keep Albania from any unsettling contact with the free world that might make it even harder to keep the country in line. Each month an Italian ship brings mail in, an Albanian ship takes mail out. There are no passengers either way. All other transport, by air and sea, is Russian.

In Tirana, the capital, only two non-satellite legations remain — Italian and French — and their members are under constant police observation. The country is overrun with Russian “experts.”

The Russians do not appear to be developing Albania as a base for war. According to the best available information, they are not building a submarine base in Albania, as has been rumored. Russians are there first of all to pilfer the country, taking out oil, chrome and other minerals.

Practically the only capital equipment the Russians have put into Albania are trucks to transport ore, and pipelines which carry oil to the port of Durazzo.

The Butcher at Work. Russians occupy the chief positions in all Albanian government departments. Soviet Minister Dmitri Chuvakhin is reported to hold Albanian cabinet meetings in his own legation. Last important Albanian minister to be critical of the Russians was Deputy Premier Koci Xoxe, friend of Yugoslavia. He was executed in June 1949. Since then the Central Committee of the Albanian Workers’ Party (Communist) has gone through several purges. The new Deputy Premier and Chief of Police is an Albanian named Mehmet Shehu (rhymes with say who), a Moslem who fought for Stalin in the Spanish civil war, was a partisan in Albania during World War II, went through advanced training in Moscow.

When an attempt was made to bomb the Soviet legation last February, Shehu put Tirana under nightly curfew, ordered his police to shoot on sight anyone seen in the streets, set up secret courts to dispose of suspects. Shehu, known as “the butcher,” commands a well-equipped army of 70,000, whose main function is maintaining internal order.

Although there is no evidence this side of the Iron Curtain that Puppet Premier Enver Hoxha is disloyal to Moscow, Strongman Shehu may replace him. Recently the Russians imposed a new system of food distribution: henceforth crops will be forcibly collected from the peasants, put in a central pool at Tirana. Peasants will then buy back food for their own use under the same rationing conditions and at the same high prices as city dwellers. By making Hoxha personal sponsor of the measure, the Russians made him the scapegoat of enraged farmers. Russian food policy, confiscation of property and police terror have made his regime the most hated in Albania’s history.

Word from King Zog. Since 1948, about 500 Albanians have escaped into Yugoslavia, many of whom have found haven in Titograd, the new provincial capital the Montenegrins are building on the ruins of Podgorica, which was razed by British bombers in World War II. Sipping thick Turkish coffee in a Titograd café last week, one of the refugees, a country storekeeper, said: “Police came to me and demanded 2,000,000 lek [$4,000]. I told him I didn’t have it. They sent me to jail in Scutari. They chained my arms together underneath my knees and threatened me with electric wires. I was sentenced to four years.”

Resistance to the regime inside Albania has been getting outside encouragement. Despite antiaircraft fire, strange planes have been flying over Albania dropping leaflets with the message: “Long live Albanian liberty. Do not lose faith. You will be freed soon.” After each leaflet raid Shehu’s police try to hold residents indoors until all leaflets have been picked up. Sponsor of the leaflets is the Free Albania Committee, whose headquarters is in New York City and which wants to bring back King Zog, now in exile in Egypt. Who supplies the aircraft is a Balkan mystery. Yugoslavia anxiously disclaims all responsibility, points out that trouble in Albania might be an easy excuse for Russia to make trouble in Yugoslavia. No one in the Balkans has forgotten the repeated promises in Moscow’s Pravda that the Red Army will march into Albania when necessary.