Albania ought to accept special conditions which, in the case of Albania, should supplement the provisions relating to the régime of minorities, expressed the opinion that, in the drawing up of the minority clauses to be accepted by Albania, regard should be had to certain suggestions made by him and including the following proposals: “4. That the Albanian Government should promise to take the necessary measures for the construction and preservation of buildings used for Christian worship, for education and for philanthropy, and that no hindrance should be placed in the way of. such work when it is justified by the needs of the communities and the conditions of the buildings. 5. That all Albanian subjects belonging to racial, religious or linguistic minorities should enjoy the same treatment and the same security, both in fact and in law, as other Albanian subjects; and that they should be entitled to establish, to administer and to control at their own expense, charitable, religious or scholastic institutions of all kinds, to employ their own language and to practice their own religion freely without interference by the authorities, provided that the interest of public order is safeguarded. 6. That the ecclesiastic, scholastic and juridical privileges and immunities granted by the Sultan to the non-Mohammedan nationals of Turkey by special ‘berats’, and confirmed by Imperial .decrees, should be recognized, and that the Albanian Government should undertake to respect them in their entirety.” [15] The reply of the Albanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, dated June 21st, 1921, contained the following in regard to these points: “4. At the present moment there is in Albania no obstacle to the construction and upkeep of buildings devoted to the Christian faith. The Greek-speaking villages already possess schools where instruction is given in the Greek language, and these schools are subsidized by the Albanian Government. 5. Equal treatment, both in law and in fact, exists for all Albanian citizens without distinction of religion. 6. The ecclesiastic and legal prerogatives and immunities will be.dealt with in a special law concerning the Orthodox autocephalous. Churches, and this law will be inspired by a liberal recognition of the freedom of conscience, equal for all Catholic, autocephalous Churches and Bektachite (Тéкé) convents.” [16] On June 27th, the Council decided that the question of minorities in Albania should be examined by the Secretariat together with the interested governments, in order that a report might [p9] be prepared for the next meeting of the Council. The latter took place in AugustOctober, 1921. [17] The report made by Mr. Fisher, the British representative, submitted to the Council a draft Declaration which was intended by the Rapporteur to be signed by the duly authorized representatives of Albania and formally communicated to the Council of the League. With regard to the contents of this Declaration, which was actually signed by the Albanian representative on October 2nd, 1921 [FN1], the Rapporteur stated that it met most of the suggestions of the Greek Government - he was referring to those made notably in the memorandum of May 17th, 1921. He indicated however two important exceptions, which he explained and accounted for in detail ; neither of these exceptions affected the points covered by Nos. 4 to б of the above-mentioned Greek memorandum. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[FN1] For the text, see Annex. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------