04.07.2021 – 14:09
On July 4, 1918, on the occasion of the national holiday, President Wilson invited the diplomatic corps accredited to Washington and representatives of the enslaved nations, including Father Fan S. Noli [ menjëherë pas Presidentit Wilson (me pantallona të bardha, xhaketë të errët dhe kapelë të bardhë), në anën e tij të majtë ], as a representative of the Albanian patriotic society VATRA. On this occasion, the newspaper “Dielli” wrote in those days: “Father Fan S. Noli spoke twice with President Wilson and once with Mrs. Wilson. “The few words he had the opportunity to exchange with President Wilson, helped save Albania from further fragmentation.”
When President Wilson met Noli, it cannot be said that the American president was without knowledge of Albania. During Wilson’s first term as president, a US ambassador to the Balkans, George Fred Williams, resigned in protest of the treatment of Albanians.
In America, the president is obliged to receive an ambassador who makes such a gesture, because ambassadors are representatives of the head of state. Also, Wilson must have heard about Albania from his friend and advisor, Charles Crane.
Before meeting Wilson, Noli saw the fate of Albania as completely obscured. From this meeting, it seemed to Noli that:
That day the fate of Albania was brighter.
The family atmosphere created deliberately for the guests by President Wilson, gave courage to Noli, making him on the way back to Washington by yacht, to enter into conversation with Mrs. Wilson, lobbying with her for Albania. Noli tells about this, in the assembly of “Vatra” that same day: It seemed good for me to talk to Mrs. Wilson. As we approached near the capital, I saw that the President’s Lady was on one side and had her eyes fixed on the banks of the river. I approached him and said:
“Madam, Albanians have instructed me to ask you to remember Albania, such a poor country, without friends and without any support. But they do not weep for the hunger and misery they remove, but for its loss.
“Yes, he tells me. We are very sorry for small nationalities like Albania, Belgium and others. “
“Our situation, madam, I told her, is very complicated and turbulent.”
From the way Mrs. Wilson responded to Fan Noli, it is clear that she was aware of Albania and its problems.
Since Mr. Charles Crane was a friend of the Wilson family, she had certainly heard from him about his adventure in Albania in 1911 and the initiative he took for a humanitarian aid campaign in Albania. Noli understood this or was probably informed and even encouraged by Mr. Crane himself, who was very well known in the Albanian-American community, so he took the courage to extend the conversation with the First Lady of the United States, rehearsing to explain to her where the complication of the situation in which Albania found itself lay.
Fortunately for Fan Noli and Albania, President Wilson joined them both, and Noli again had the opportunity to talk to him about Albania.
Here is Noli’s story: President Wilson, who was talking to a diplomat near us, turned to me and said, “She’s really very complicated.” Then I took courage and said: “The only hope for Albanians is America and you, Mr. President. ”