]i['c] had refused to treat. When the two Albanian parties
discussed the situation by shooting at each other, the Austro-Hungarian
officers made tracks for Kotor, and that particular intrigue came to an
end.

When the War was over, the Serbs, sweeping up from Macedonia, were
requested by General Franchet d'Esperey to undertake a task which the
Italians refused, and push the demoralized Austrian troops out of
Albania. Some weeks after this had been accomplished, the Italians,
mindful of the Treaty of London, demanded that a large part of Albania
should be given up to their administration. The Serbs agreed and
withdrew; they even took away their representative from Scutari, where
the Allies had again installed themselves. The Treaty of London bestowed
upon the Serbs a sphere of influence in northern Albania, but--save for
a few misguided politicians--they were logical enough to reject the
whole of the pernicious Treaty, both the clauses which robbed them in
Dalmatia and those which in Albania gave them stolen goods. Over and
over again did the Yugoslav delegates declare in Paris that it was their
wish to see established an independent Albania with the frontiers of
1913. These, the first frontiers which the Albanians had ever possessed,
were laid down by Austria with the express purpose of thwarting the
Serbs and facilitating Albanian raids. It is true that several towns
with large Albanian majorities were made over to the Serbs--very much,
as it turned out, to their subsequent advantage--yet, being separated
from their hinterland, this was a doubtful gift. Nevertheless, if a free
and united Albania could be constituted the Serbs were ready to accept
this frontier, and even Monsieur Justin Godart, the strenuous French
Albanophile of whom we speak elsewhere, cannot deny that this attitude
of the Yugoslavs redounds very much to their honour. But before relative
tranquillity reigns among the Albanians it is, as General Franchet
d'Esperey perceived in 1918, an untenable line. He, therefore, drew a
temporary frontier which permitted the Serbs to advance for some miles
into Albania, so that on the river Drin or on the mountain summits they
might ward off attacks. These, by the way, had their origin far more in
the border population's empty stomachs than in their animus against the
Slavs. And nobody with knowledge of this people could regard the 1918
frontier as unnecessary. The Albanians were themselves so much inclined
to acqui