International Cough

Gleefully last week anti-tobacco leagues and anti-cigaret societies pointed to young King Zog of Albania as a frightful warning. Having smoked a small carload of cigarets (coarse, loose-rolled Macedonias) in the past year,* King Zog developed such a cough that his Italian physician announced that he had completely lost his voice. King Zog was dumb. Alarming news that the dumb Zog's ailment might be cancer of the throat caused European chancelleries to turn anxious eyes on Albania. Despite its bachelor king, Albania is already an Italian protectorate to all intents and purposes. Diplomats feared that the death of King Zog, the disturbances that are almost certain to ensue, would be just the excuse needed for official Italian intervention. With Albania Italian territory, and Italy colonizing Dalmatia by the terms of the Treaty of Nettuno (TIME, June 17), Italy would have what she has always wanted, virtual command of the Adriatic. Fearful of Italy's hungry eyes, the Albanian Chancellery loudly announced that King Zog was not dumb. He wheezed, they admitted, but remained intelligible. Further he had reduced his cigaret diet from 150 to 50 per day.

*He is credited with smoking 150 cigarets a day, nearly 55,000 per annum.