During the remainder of 1944, SOE continued to supply the NLM, despite complaints from MacLean and Smiley, now running liaison parties with Abaz Kupi's group and the Balli Kombëtar in Northern Albania, that the NLM were using these arms against their political opponents rather than the Germans. Smiley, MacLean and Julian Amery were evacuated to Italy at the end of October. SOE refused to evacuate Abaz Kupi on the same boat, and he made his own escape from the country, being picked up by a Royal Naval vessel in the Adriatic.