Italy Deeply Interested.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 9, 1912:
Sentiment in Rome Not Averse to Servia Getting a Seaport.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    ROME, Nov. 8.— The events in the Balkans, which have taken the whole of Europe by surprise, are not causing less surprise here, although Italy, on account of her war with Turkey, was watching the Balkan States more closely than were the other great powers.
    One of the things which caused most anxiety to the Italian Cabinet at the beginning of hostilities with the Ottoman Empire was the possibility that out of them might arise complications in the Balkans. The desire to prevent anything of the kind was so sincere that contemporaneously with the declaration of war the Italian Government, in September, 1911, sent a circular note to its representatives at Sofia, Belgrade, Athens, and Cettinje, giving them detailed and energetic instructions to do all in their power to discourage any attempts to make the war over Tripoli a pretext for national vindication.
    Nothing happened at the time, but one year of war in northern Africa and the Agean Sea, coupled with the latest insurrection at home, and one of the worst periods of mismanagement in the government of the Empire, showed the rotten condition of Mussulman rule and helped to create the coalition of the Balkan States, which, a few months before, would have been thought an impossible dream.
    Now, it is evident that the end of Ottoman rule in Europe has come, and the only thing to settle is how to divide the territory possessed by the followers of the Crescent. This, of course, is not an easy matter, considering the conflicting interests of not only the four Balkan allied States, but also Roumania and the three great powers especially interested in that part of the Continent, Russia, Austria, and Italy. The last of these countries, after having taken Tripoli, in spite of the proverb that "eating and fighting only want a beginning," does not aspire to any further territorial gains, but is very sensitive as to the future rulers of the opposite coast of the Adriatic. Vallona, the chief Albanian town on that sea, is only a few hours' steam from Italy, and from it a naval power could dominate the whole of the Adriatic. This is why an agreement was made between Italy and Austria by which the two countries pledged themselves not to occupy Albania.
    The plan favored by Italy is, therefore, that Epirus, with Prevesa and Janina, be annexed to Greece; Scutari, with the surrounding district, to Montenegro; and that Albania be autonomous, or, if that be impossible, that it be divided between Montenegro, Greece and Servia, thus giving this last country also an outlet to the sea.