Page - 492 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

492 War Aims and Central Europe the war was threatened. And Conrad was very satisfied with this, since in this way the Imperial and Royal troops could penetrate further to the south against Albania. Finally, on 23 January, news of the complete surrender arrived. At the same time, however, the antagonism between the Army High Command and the Foreign Ministry completely erupted. Conrad could not imagine anything else for the future than a territorially severely diminished Montenegro, which, like Serbia, would be attached to the Dan- ube Monarchy. It should conclude a military convention, form a customs union, align its coin and currency system with that of Austria, and refrain from conducting an independent foreign policy. The Foreign Ministry, however, was in favour of far more moderate demands, rejected an annexation and wanted to give a signal to the other opponents of the Central Powers by means of restrained conditions, in order to increase their readiness for peace. At the point Montenegro’s unconditional surrender, its internal organisation com- pletely unravelled. King and government fled and ordered the resistance to be contin- ued. Individual voivodes (warlords) remained. The army surrendered or fled to Albania. The Montenegrins already in Austro-Hungarian prisoner of war captivity refused to go back to their homeland because they did not want to return to the chaotic conditions of a politically and economically devastated country. Temporarily, there was not even anyone there with whom they could negotiate. Now it was on to Albania. The Imperial and Royal XIX Army Corps pursued the Serbs to the Shkodër region, where the Serbian troops again put up a fight and finally surrendered. Other Serbs had reached Durrës and the south of Albania, where they were brought to Corfu with ships belonging to the Entente. The Italians continued to occupy Vlorë and the territory as far as the Shkumbin River. A central power was also lacking in Albania, since Prince von Wied, who had briefly acted as ruler there, had long since fled. Subsequently, the Imperial and Royal troops advanced further southwards and finally over the Shkumbin, until they encountered Italian troops and encircled them near Vlorë. Of the 70,000 Austrian prisoners of war who had started out in October, only 23,000 arrived at the coast. Together with the Serbian troops, the Serbian civil administration and civilian refugees, over 190,000 people were brought with eighty steamers and under the protection of more than seventy warships to Corfu, but also to Lipari and Ponza, as well as Marseille, Bastia, Bizerte and other places.1176 Provided they did not die of privation, cholera or other epidemics following their evac- uation, the Serbs were nursed back to health and finally brought to Salonika, where they were to augment the ‘Army of the Orient’ of General Sarrail. In this way, the Entente was served, for on the pne hand, it no longer had to give any appreciable care to the Serbian soldiers and, on the other hand, avoided the evacuation of Greece, which had already been envisaged. With the surviving contingents, Serbia associated a type of leftover sovereignty and a chance to reconquer the lost lands.