ducational and economic
labours might, after a time, be made self-supporting by the permission
to exploit--of course, with due regard to Albania's future--the forests
and mines. "To be master in Albania," says M. Gabriel Hanotaux, "one
would have to dislodge the inhabitants from their eyries"--(another
French statesman has used a less exalted simile: "Albania," M. Briand
once said, "is an international lavatory")--and it goes without saying
that any corporation which undertakes to civilize the Shqyptart would
need to bring in a military force, on similar lines to the Swedish
_gendarmerie_ in Persia. The Swedes, in fact, who are a military nation,
might be glad to accept this mandate; the expenses could be met by an
international fund. A certain number of Albanians would be admitted to
the _gendarmerie_; and the more unruly natives would be dealt with as
they were, for everybody's good, by Austria.... The Yugoslavs would then
be delighted to accept the 1913 frontier, which is also what the
Albanians ask for; and Yugoslavs, Italians and Greeks would all retire
from Albania. There is really no need for the Italians to demand Valona
or Saseno, the island which lies in front of it. The Italian naval
experts know very well that the possession of Pola, Lussin and Lagosta
would not be made more valuable by the addition of an Albanian base.

6. THE ATTRACTION OF YUGOSLAVIA

But as Europe has not arrived at some such solution, and since the
Albanian Government has been prematurely recognized by the Powers, then
while the Albanians are engaged in the stormy process of working out
their own salvation, it is only fair that Yugoslavia should be given a
good defensive frontier. The 1913 frontier is only possible if the
Albanians are pacific, but as it has now been thought wise to set up an
unaided and independent Albanian State there is nothing more certain
than the turmoil of which its borders will be the scene, and this will
be so whether the Italians do or do not come to the Albanians'
assistance. What hope is there of even a relative tranquillity on the
Albanian border when so many of the natives, preferring Yugoslav rule to
that of their own countrymen, will be waging a civil war? That this
preference is fairly widespread one could see in 1920 by the number of
refugees on the Yugoslav side of the frontier. [Of course, a large
number of Albanians also fled to Scutari and elsewhere from the
districts lately occupied by the Yugos