Corfu incident

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The Corfu Incident was a diplomatic emergency in 1923. Greece and Albania were quarrelling over their boundary. The two nations took their dispute to the Conference of Ambassadors. Meanwhile the League of Nations had appointed a commission to determine the boundaries. Groups of soldiers that had been called upon to help settle the situation were split up. Four Italians drove in one vehicle and stopped at a road, where a tree had fallen down. As they got out to move it they were killed on the Greek side of the border. Mussolini reacted violently, seeing it as the Greek government's fault. He bombarded and occupied the Greek island of Corfu, demanding that Greece pay an indemnity. Greece protested to the League of Nations - which took up the case. The league agreed with the Greeks and said that Italy should withdraw, but Mussolini refused. The ambassadors, then changed there minds and put forth terms favorable to Italy: Greece was to pay at once, though had done no wrong. The League accepted the pro-Italian decision but was internationally criticized - it submitted to the aggression of a bigger world power instead of protecting the smaller Greece from attack.