Albania's behalf, and did all
he could to establish her safely. "The Albanians," he once said to
me, "are the only Balkan race which ever tells the truth." He and
the German tried to persuade Essad to resign, but he refused, and as
he had an armed force at his command, the Commission' thought it
risky to press him. He undertook to meet the Commission later at
Valona. Ismail Kemal asked the Commission to take over the
government till a Prince should arrive, and resigned. Essad then was
induced to resign by being promised he should be president of the
delegation which was to meet the newly-elected Prince, of Wied.
After months of squabbling the Powers in their united wisdom had
chosen this man. Why, it is hard to see. The feelings of the
Albanians were not considered. Even Sir Edward Grey said: "The
primary thing was to preserve agreement between the Powers
themselves." The infant state of Albania was to be flung to the
wolves to save its elders.

It was decided that Albania should be governed by a Prince elected
by the Powers; that it should enjoy perpetual neutrality under the
collective guarantee of the Powers, and that these six Powers should
be represented in Albania by an International Commission, with one
Albanian on it. Dutch officers were to train the gendarmerie. On
paper it looked well. But France raised Albania's worst enemy,
Krajevsky, from Vice-consul to International Commissioner. France
was represented thus by a Levantine Slav. Italy, too, selected a
Levantine, Aliotti, to carry out her schemes at Durazzo. Only
England and Germany were acting honestly.

Essad Pasha began to move soon. He demanded that the provisional
government should be removed to Durazzo, where it would be in his
power, and where he had two partners, the Montenegrin Gjurashkovitch
and the Greek bishop. The International Commission chose Valona as
its seat.

Meanwhile Scutari was ruled by the International force separately.
The Powers had thus given two international governments to Albania.
One with plenty of force and very limited jurisdiction, and the
other with wide jurisdiction and no force. And there was also the
little provisional Albanian government. The Prince was an officer
with a limited military mind, and without experience of the Near
East. His one qualification for the post was that he was "the nephew
of his aunt," Carmen Sylva of Roumania, and she pressed his
candidature. The true reason for his unanimous selection was