.

The new regime is to be organised and its execution controlled
by the International Commission, and the Commissioners are to
visit the country to see that its provisions are being given
effect to.

Thus already it is recognised that within the small territory of Albania
there has been included one district which is so Greek in sympathy that
it cannot be administered under Albanian law.

[Illustration: AT THE WELL]

The next development in Albania was that Essad Pasha, the Albanian chief
who had, more than any other, assisted to form an independent Albania,
fell out with Prince William and was arrested. A state of tension
between him and Prince William had increased as evidence of Essad
Pasha's complicity in a revolutionary movement became known. A letter
written by Essad Pasha fell into Prince William's hands, in which Essad
Pasha ordered his agents to persuade people to obey only his commands
and not those of the Prince. The Prince thereupon summoned him to the
Palace, and after a stormy scene Essad Pasha tendered his resignation
and returned home. The Prince then held a Council with his Dutch
officers, and decided to compel the disbandment of Essad Pasha's
bodyguard. A Dutch officer conveyed the Prince's command to Essad Pasha.
He at first appeared to consent, and then told his men to resist. They
began to fire upon the Prince's armed adherents in the street. Austrian
and Italian detachments landed, and a party under the command of an
Italian officer arrested Essad Pasha.

That arrest created fresh trouble, and a few days later Prince William
abandoned his kingdom and took refuge on a foreign warship. Repenting of
that precipitate step, he returned to his capital again, and at the time
of writing (June 1914) he is still there under the protection of his
foreign soldiers; but an insurgent force holds the field, demanding
"restoration of Moslem rule." It is not too much to say that independent
Albania has been still-born. Probably neither Austria nor Italy expected
such a quick collapse of their artificial creation. But that it would
collapse one day must have been within their knowledge and their desire,
which was to put a sick infant in the place of a sick man. As it
happens, the collapse has come when neither of them is in a position to
benefit immediately by it. Neither is prepared for an expedition to the
Balkans. But whilst not serving the interests of the Powers who created
Albania, this