Albanian government was negatived by the rival action of the other Power. Each of these governments was trying to pull the rope to its side, and the result was standstill and deadlock, while the revolution was spreading through Central Albania.

In the meantime, the Greeks or Epirots, took advantage of the situation. Emboldened by the disturbances of Central Albania, they tore to pieces the Disposition of Corfou (p. 143), and completed the devastation of Southern Albania, according to their original program. They burned down three hundred towns and villages, and drove from their hearths 150,000 men, women and children, in order to prove the attachment of that unfortunate population to the criminal Government of Autonomous Epirus and to its sponsor, the government of Athens, Most of the refugees died the terrible death of starvation at Valona and in its suburbs.1

The European Powers were finally moved by this inhuman treatment inflicted on the Albanians by the Christian Greek nation. The devastation of Southern Albania became a matter of serious discussion in the British Parliament, and the hitherto evasive Sir Edward Grey openly condemned the Greek atrocities.

Mr. AUBREY HERBERT asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any information as to massacres committed in Epirus; and whether he has any information showing that definite steps will be taken by the Greek government to put an end to this state of affairs:

1 See The Christian Work, October, 1914. Special number published by the Albanian Relief Committee of New York. Photographs inserted.

SIR EDWARD GREY.-I have little to add to what I have already told the House on this subject. The accounts of what has occurred in Southern Albania are very distressing, but I have received no details in regard to actual excesses or massacres and such reports as have reached me as to the numbers that have been rendered homeless are from unofficial sources, which cannot all be considered as quite reliable. In Valona itself, I hear from a private source that there are now some 12,000 refugees, but I fear that it cannot be doubted that in the country round thousands more are destitute and in urgent need of the necessities of life. Some proposals have been made for their immediate relief. The Italian Government informed me that they were prepared to send maize and other necessaries at once, and His Majesty's Government are ready to bear their share of the cost, if the other Powers do likewise. Furthermore, the Powers are considering the dispatch from Durazzo of an international mission who will endeavor to elucidate past occurrences, and I trust contribute to the restoration of some sort of order and confidence. Such information as I have received that seemed trustworthy respecting excesses in Epirus I have brought to the knowledge of the Greek Government, pointing out that though I am convinced that M. Venizelos earnestly desires to prevent these occurrences, the fact of their being due to Greeks, however irresponsible, must produce a very unfavorable impression.1

In consequence, the Powers entered into negotiations with the view to providing the necessary means 1 Parl. Debates, House of Commons, Vol. 65, pp. 1091-92.

for the expulsion of the Greeks from Southern Albania and to strengthening the Government of Durazzo. But at the moment when the result of these negotiations was to be carried into effect, there occurred the assassination of the Austrian Archduke, Francis Ferdinand, with its too well-known consequences, and the Powers had to forget Albania.1

1

Even after the outbreak of the European war, there were, nevertheless, many sanguine Albanian patriots who earnestly believed that the situation was not entirely hopeless. Their idea was to transfer the capital to Scutari, around which there stood the whole of the loyal Northern Albania, or to Valona, which also remained loyal to the government to the very last moment.

But, a few days only after the beginning of hostilities in Europe, it was rendered evident that the situation was quite untenable, on account of the financial distress of the government.

The death knell of the reign of Prince William of Wied, Hereditary Mbret of Albania, had sounded, and on September 3rd, 1914, after six months of troublesome and disheartening rule, the Prince embarked, with his family, on board the Italian yacht Misurata and sailed away to Europe. Prior to his departure, however, he issued a proclamation to the Albanian people wherein he stated that, owing to the unsettled conditions of Europe, he deemed it necessary to absent himself temporarily from his beloved people, in order to return when conditions should be more propitious.

Contrary, then, to the generally prevailing opin1 Ibid., Vol. 63, p. 1961.

ion, he has not abdicated as yet, though the chances of his coming back to Albania are nil from every point of view.

REFERENCES

DILLON, E. J., The Albanian Tangle, Fortnightly Review, July, 1914, pp. 1-28.

ERICSON, C. TELFORD, The Truth About Albania, Asiatic Review, Vol. 5 (N. S.) (beg. with p. 163), August, 1914.

ITALO-SULLIOTI (Special Correspondent in Albania of the La Tribuna of Rome), Sei mesi di regno in Albania, Milan, 1914, pp. 1-126. ISMAIL KEMAL BEY, Albania and the Albanians, Quarterly Review (July, 1917), Vol. 228, pp. 162-168.

CHAPTER XIII

ALBANIA IN THE GREAT WAR

I. INTERNATIONAL POST-REGNUM

By a singular turn of the wheel of fate, the Prince had to delegate his sovereign authority to the same body from the hands of which he had received it when he first set foot on the Albanian soil.

On leaving Albania, the unlucky ruler handed over the government to the International Commission of Control whose high prerogatives he had at first disregarded. But, in the present circumstances, even the Commission of Control could not fare any better than the Prince, although it was cloaked with the prestige of acting in the name of the European Powers. The outbreak of the great war had caused the breaking up of the Commission. From the first days of the hostilities in Europe, the British, German and Russian delegates had been withdrawn by the action of their respective governments; there remained only the representatives of Austria, Italy and France. There was no Albanian delegate. Moreover, it could not be rationally expected that the delegate of France would coöperate, for the sake of Albania, with that of Austria while their governments were at war. Furthermore, the absence of funds and the lack of any means for the enforcement of their authority rendered the task of the remainder of the delegates a well-nigh hopeless one.