Truculence

Ever since a team of Russian military advisers and technicians dropped in last January, Albania's youngish (38) dictator, Enver Hoxha (rhymes with got cha) has been as truculent as a small boy who thinks his big brother can lick anybody. Last week his behavior had reached a point where Washington and London could no longer afford to ignore it.

Simple Solution. Hoxha's war-born, Soviet-style regime had never been officially recognized by Britain or the U.S. An American mission had recommended recognition, provided that the Albanian Government would honor routine prewar U.S.-Albanian treaties. Hoxha rejected this condition (accepted by his fellow-puppet Tito) and accused U.S. officials of conspiring against his Government.

Last week the State Department closed negotiations, asked the Albanian Government for permission to send two destroyers to Durazzo, Albania's No. 1 seaport, to pick up the mission. Petulantly Hoxha refused, instead protested to the U.N. (which has denied Albania membership) that the U.S. request was an "abridgement of Albanian sovereignty." The U.S. Government disdained to answer the protest, solved the problem simply by sending the destroyers to the edge of the three-mile limit. The mission and its baggage were ferried out by small boat.

Inescapable Implication. Hoxha's feud with Britain went beyond diplomatic skirmishing. Last May the British cruisers Orion and Superb were cruising in the Strait of Corfu, a 2-to 15-mile-wide corridor between Albania and the Greek island of Corfu. An Albanian shore battery opened fire, missed. Last month the Royal Navy destroyers Saumarez and Volage, cruising in the same Strait, ran into mines, were crippled. Casualties totaled 38 dead, 50 injured. British indignation was heated. Said a high-ranking Royal Navy officer: "There's no difference between this and bombing the British Home Fleet at Scapa. ... In other times we'd have had a British squadron off the coast of the nation involved, and by now a division or two ashore making sure that whoever was responsible was going to pay in more ways than one. . . ."

The British took matters into their own hands. From the Central Mine Clearance Board, an organization of the world's maritime nations, including Russia, they got permission to sweep Corfu Strait. Last week the Admiralty announced that 22 moored mines, all from German stocks, had been cut and destroyed. Discreetly it was recalled that the Strait had been swept clean once before--in August 1945. The implication that the Albanians had put the new mines there was inescapable.

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