WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM
October [27], 1919
Dear Miss Addams,
I am sending to you herewith enclosed an appeal* to [the] American women brought to me by a charming little Albanian woman here with the most earnest request to get it before American women. Will you give it what publicity seems practicable? The case of Albania, to which all the Powers united to promise independence in 1913, has always especially appealed to me. It is pathetic in the deepest sense the way all the friendless of the earth look to distant powerful America, which they idealize, as their only hope. This is especially the case ↑when↓ they have known America through missionaries and teachers. Armenians come in hoping I may be able to exert some pressure toward getting the U.S. to accept a mandate over them. They don't care how much capitalists exploit them and their oil-wells. In fact they would like to be exploited. They believe, rightly or wrongly, that if Turkey learns that America refuses the mandate, massacres will thereupon break out and that, if she accepts, Turkey will at once begin to behave herself. So their feelings can be understood and when they begin telling you their family histories it is not easy to sleep afterward. Then come in Bulgarians, whose idea of America is [page 2] based on Roberts College and the College for Girls at Constantinople and hope I can help [mobilize] American [friendliness] in their dark hour. And now the Albanians who especially beg for American educational aid, above all for teachers to be sent out to them, and, again particularly, for the founding of technical institutes and for technical teachers. I think that some of them believe that [there] is no political hope at present but they want to be building themselves up economically,
Have you any advice for [illegible] me?
Yours affectionately,
Emily Balch [signed]
I am trying out our old machine just arrived ↑from↓ Holland, by kind offices of Madame Ramondt and of a Dutch friend of hers who brought it through, and it doesn't work perfectly but I should think could readily be made to do so if the [illegible] Oliver people have any representative here.
↑Note especially last paragraph on page 2. It is touching and I think would get publicity if given a chance.↓
*together with a copy of a message to the Senate and a statement about atrocities committed by Serbs.
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