The Photo Collection of Edith Durham

Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913

ED002_RAI 400_13110 Albania. Kruja. The provisional government of the “Republic of Central Albania” set up by Essad Pasha Toptani (Photo: Edith Durham, October 1913). “Essad now insisted on being a member of the provisional government. All feared him. None wanted him. He started a government of his own at Durazzo. In February the British and German Commissioners went there. Sir Harry Lamb worked hard on 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.” (Edith Durham, Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle, 1920).