Government in conformity with Article 5, paragraph 2, of the Albanian Declaration of October
2nd, 1921”, and to instruct the Secretary-General to examine this information “in cooperation
with the Albanian representative and to submit [his] conclusions to the Rapporteur”. The
results of this examination were set out in a memorandum which the Secretariat communicated
to the Council, for its information, on May 14th, 1924.
[29] This memorandum stated that the Minorities Section of the Secretariat had undertaken,
together with the Albanian representative, a detailed examination of various questions
including the question of schools. In regard to this point, the Albanian representative appears
to have informed the Secretariat that a law was being drafted by which no private schools
would be allowed in Albania; this law, being general in character and applying to the majority
as well as to the minority, would, in his view, be in conformity with Article 5, paragraph 1, of
the Declaration of October 2nd, 1921. According to a letter dated November 3rd, 1934,
addressed by the Albanian Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Secretary-General, this view had
been “expressed in statements made in August, 1923, to the permanent Albanian Delegate by
M. Colban, the Director of the Minorities Section [FN1]”. No document confirming this
allegation has, however, been produced to the Court.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[FN1] Translation by the Registry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[30] The Secretariat’s memorandum does not seem to have led to any subsequent decision on
the part of the Council. In his “Report to the Sixth Assembly of the League of Nations on the
Work of the Council”, etc. (Sept., 1925), the Secretary-General of the League writes that the
“memorandum prepared by the Secretariat was communicated to Members of the Council....
The Council has not yet decided to examine this document” ; and in his report to the Council
on January 14th, 1935, the Spanish representative said: “since then [May 1924] the Council
has not dealt with the matter”. In the same report it is explained that, in view of the
information supplied by the Albanian Government in 1922 and 1923, the Council [p13] did not
feel that the situation called for any recommendations.
[31] The intentions mentioned by the Albanian representative in his conversations with the
Secretariat in 1923 did not take shape for some time. Thus, on December 1st, 1928, a new
Constitution was promulgated; Articles 206 and 207 were as follows:
“Article 206. - Elementary education is compulsory for all Albanian subjects and shall be
given free of charge in the State schools.
Article 207. - Provided they conform with the laws, principles and curricula approved by the
State for its own schools, and subject to the effective control of the Government, Albanian
subjects may found private schools.
Provided they comply with the laws, foreigners may be authorized to found technical and
agricultural schools only, with theoretical and practical curricula.
Similarly, religious schools may be established by Albanian religious communities with the
permission of the competent Minister and in conformity with the laws ; the number of the
religious schools of any community and of the pupils of such schools shall be fixed by the
competent Minister after consultation with the Council of Ministers.”
[32] In the following year, however, the law regarding the secularization of education to which
- as has already been mentioned —the Albanian representative alluded in his observations at
the Council meeting on January 14th, 1935, was prepared; but this law, according to the
statements of this representative, remained a dead letter. On January 9th, 1930, a new law was