anian
autonomy, together with a provision guaranteeing to Servia commercial
access to the Adriatic. This had aroused the intense indignation of the
Serbs, whose armies, contrary to the express prohibitions of
Austria-Hungary, had already occupied Durazzo on the Adriatic and
overrun northern Albania. The Serbs denied the right of any State to
forbid them to occupy the territory of the enemy whom they had
conquered, and Servia sent a detachment of her best troops and some of
her largest siege guns to help the Montenegrins take Scutari. Moreover,
numerous reports of outrages committed upon Albanians by the
"Liberators" in their attempts to convert both Moslem and Catholic
Albanians to the orthodox faith reached central Europe and caused great
danger in Vienna. Count Berchtold's statement to the Delegations that
Austria-Hungary would insist upon territory enough to enable
independent Albania to be a stable State with Scutari as the capital,
aroused in turn much excitement in Russia. Scutari was the chief goal
of Montenegrin ambition. To possess it had been the hope of King
Nicholas and his people during his long reign of half a century. To
forbid him to possess it would be to deprive him of the fruits of the
really heroic sacrifices his people had made during this war. Hence the
excitement in all Slavdom. On February 7th Francis Joseph sent Prince
Hohenlohe to St. Petersburg with an autograph letter to the Czar which
had the good effect of reducing the tension between the two countries.

The ambassadorial conference at London then directed its attention
exclusively to settling the status of Albania. After more than a month
of acrimonious discussion a settlement was reached on March 26th in
which the principle of nationality which had been invoked to justify
the creation of an independent Albania was quietly ignored. The
conference agreed upon the northern and northeastern boundaries of
Albania. In order to carry her point that Scutari must be Albanian,
Austria-Hungary agreed that the almost exclusively Albanian towns of
Ipek, Djakova, Prizrend, and Dibra should go to the Serbs. On April 1st
King Nicholas was notified that the powers had unanimously agreed to
blockade his coast if he did not raise the siege of Scutari. His answer
was that the proposed action of the powers was a breach of neutrality
and that Montenegro would not alter her attitude until she had signed a
treaty of peace. At once the warships of all the powers