The first Balkan war led to the collapse of Turkey and with it the
defeat of our policy, which had been identified with Turkey for many
years. Since the salvation of Turkey in Europe was no longer feasible,
only two possibilities for settling the question remained. Either we
declared we had no longer any interest in the definition of boundaries
in the Balkan Peninsula, and left the settlement of the question to the
Balkan peoples themselves, or we supported our allies and carried out a
Triple Alliance policy in the East, thereby giving up the rôle of
mediator.
I urged the former course from the beginning, but the German Foreign
Office very much preferred the latter. The chief question was Albania.
Our allies desired the establishment of an independent State of Albania,
as Austria would not allow Serbia to reach the Adriatic, and Italy did
not wish the Greeks to reach Valona or even the territory north of
Corfu. On the other hand, Russia, as is known, favored Serbian, and
France Greek, desires. My advice was now to consider the question as
outside the alliance, and to support, neither Austrian nor Italian
wishes. Without our support the establishment of Albania, whose
incapability of existence might have been foreseen, was an
impossibility. Serbia would have pushed forward to the coast; then the
present world war would have been avoided. France and Italy would have
remained definitely divided as to Greece, and the Italians, had they not
wished to fight France, alone, would have been obliged to consent to the
expansion of Greece to the district north of Durazzo. The greater part
of civilized Albania is Greek. The southern towns are entirely Greek,
and, at the time of the conference of Ambassadors, deputations from the
larger towns came to London to carry through the annexation to Greece.
In Greece today whole groups are Albanian, and the so-called Greek
national dress is of Albanian origin. The amalgamation of the
preponderating Orthodox and Islamic Albanians with the Greek State was,
therefore, the best solution and the most natural, if one leaves out of
account Scutari and the northern part of Serbia and Montenegro. His
Majesty was also in favor of this solution on dynastic grounds. When I
encouraged the monarch by letter to this effect, I received violent
reproaches from the Chancellor for supporting Austria's opponents, and
he forbade all such interference in the future, and even direct
correspondence. We had eventually, however, to abandon the tradition of
carrying out the Triple Alliance policy in the East and to acknowledge
our mistake, which consisted in identifying ourselves with the Turks in
the south and the Austro-Magyars in the north; for the continuance of
that policy, which we began at the Congress in Berlin and subsequently
carried on zealously, was bound in time, should the necessary skill in
conducting it fail, to lead to a collision with Russia and a world war.