Corfu Channel Incident - Aftermath

Aftermath

On 9 December 1946 Britain sent a note to the Albanian government accusing Albania of laying the mines and demanding reparations for the May and October incidents. Britain demanded a reply within fourteen days, mentioning that in the event of a negative Albanian response the matter would be referred to the UN Security Council. The Albanian government in its reply, which was received by the British on 21 December 1946, denied the British allegations and went on to elaborate that the whole affair was the work of countries which did not wish to see a normalisation of relations between Albania and Britain, and in fact vessels from Greece and other countries had trespassed recently in the area where the mines were discovered.

The British government did not find this response satisfactory and it eventually brought its case to the International Court of Justice, having failed in its attempt to involve the Security Council in the matter. It was the first case adjudicated by the ICJ, and in December 1949 the court awarded the British the sum of £843,947 or US $2,009,437 having found that, irrespectively of who laid the mines, the Albanians ought to have observed any such action, since the minefield was so close to their coast, and thus they failed to inform the British of the danger. The Court also rejected the self-defence argument advanced by the United Kingdom and found that the mine-clearing operations undertaken by the British during Operation Retail, in the absence of prior Albanian consent, were illegal.

The Albanian Government refused to pay the reparations ordered by the Court and in retaliation the British withheld 1574 kilograms of gold belonging to Albania. The gold, looted by the Axis powers from Albania during World War II, was stored in the vaults of the Bank of England and was awarded to the Albanians by the US-UK-France tripartite commission in 1948 after it was retrieved by the Allies.

With the end of the Cold War, the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania ceased to exist in 1991. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on 29 May 1991. Soon after, on 8 May 1992, Britain and Albania announced that they had come to an agreement over the Corfu Channel case, jointly announcing that "Both sides expressed their regret at the Corfu Channel Incident of 22 October 1946". Only in 1996 following lengthy negotiations was the gold finally returned to Albania after it agreed to pay US $2,000,000 in delayed reparations.

Enver Hoxha, in his memoirs about his first meeting with Joseph Stalin, wrote that the whole affair was concocted by the British as an excuse for military intervention at the town of Saranda. Hoxha also described the events as "an unprecedented provocation toward our country".

On 2 November 2009 a team of US and Albanian researchers announced that they found what they believe to be the bow segments of HMS Volage in the Corfu Channel under approximately fifty metres of water. Dishes, shoes and ammunition found in the area surrounding the wreckage are further evidence that fits, according to the researchers.