Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents extracted from the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana, which belong to 1973, where there are several telegrams with the initials “Top Secret”, with the correspondence of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Reiz Malile with the Albanian mission to the UN, where one of the officials of that mission (Rako Naço), informs his superiors in Tirana, for a letter that the secretary of Monsignor Fan Noli, Maria Jones, has sent to them at their headquarters, where she wanted to donate to the Albanian state some objects, relics, paintings, lampshades, etc., which had been in Fan Noli’s office when she had worked next to him. As well as the negative response of the Deputy Minister, Reiz Malile, who, among other things, wrote: “Regarding the offer of Noli’s secretary, do not give him an answer, they left him silent. Take a correct attitude towards her, if she visits you and welcomes you humanely, you can also give her a symbolic gift. “Try not to extract anything from it from Noli’s archive that has not been delivered to us.”
As we have seen in one of the previous chapters of this book, which deals with an archival document from 1960, where the Albanian mission to the United Nations, by means of a telegram “Top secret”, announced the Ministry of Of Foreign Affairs in Tirana, regarding a speech given by Bishop Fan Noli at St. George’s Church in Boston (where he had spoken on “The misery of the Church in Albania and the Iron Curtain”, a telegram which from of Pirro Bitës was sent to Enver Hoxha and the four secretaries of the Central Committee of the ALP, even after Noli’s death, the communist regime of Tirana continued to hold the same negative attitude towards his figure, name and memory.
This is best known from this archival document of 1972-’73, which talks about a correspondence between the Albanian mission to the UN and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana, where one of the officials of that mission (Rako Naço ), informs the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Reiz Malile, about a letter that Noli’s secretary, Maria Jones, sent to them at the mission headquarters.
According to the document in question, she wants to donate to the Albanian state some objects, relics, paintings, lampshades, etc., which were in Fan Noli’s office when she worked next to him. Even for this, she has sent other letters to the Albanian mission to the UN, but has not received any response. And given this fact, she has been forced to write again, even with a grudge for not getting a response from that mission.
But, as in the first letter, even for this letter, she has never received an answer…?! Although in the telegram in question, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Tirana, Reiz Malile, has put the note: “Comrade Thanas (Nano) to talk”, it seems that he later gave up this…?! Afterwards, through a telegram “Top Secret”, written by his hand, he instructed the officials of the Albanian mission to the UN, that she, (Maria Jones), not return the answer and her request to be left in silence.
Not only that, but he in the telegram in question (see the relevant facsimile), instructs his subordinates to treat him correctly and if he visits them on a mission, to wait for him and treat him humanely and try to t ‘take from her anything other than what Noli had in his archive. But this message, even to Malile himself, seemed out of place (not to say too diabolical), so much so that he gave it up and broke that sentence at the end of the telegram.
This attitude, that is, the silence and ignorance that Tirana made official to Mrs. Maria Jones, who had served for years as Noli’s secretary, seems to have nothing to do with her, but she was given the “bill” that the communist regime of Tirana would send to Noli if he were still alive. This is related to the political position and attitude that Bishop Noli continued to hold for a long time towards official Tirana and at the same time the policy of Enver Hoxha. But all this was kept very secret and the communist regime continued to “play” with the figure of Noli, with two faces:
While for internal and external consumption he presented him as a patriot who “had fought against Satrap Zog in the June Revolution of ’24”, or as a translator, writer and poet, who had sung for Luigj Gurakuqi, Bajram Curri, etc. , actually held a very negative attitude towards him and monitored him for years there far away in the US, at every step of his and keeping note of everything he did and every word he said. Like most of the documents in this book, these are published in full as they are in the relevant file in the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana.
Correspondence of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Reiz Malile, with the Albanian mission to the UN, with the telegrams with the initials “Top secret”
Decoding
Return to the TOP SECRET
digit organ
It is forbidden to make copies
No. of sheet 84
No. 1323
From New York
No. 80
Dated 18/1/1973
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
In a letter that Marie Jones, Noli’s former secretary informs us that she wants to send as a gift to Albania the copy of an autographed painting of the author, which she received in Paris in 1934 and that the original is a wall painting on the page of a the wall in the courthouse in Bourg La Reine, on the outskirts of Paris, as well as a glass lampshade by those hanging from the ceiling, which Marie Jones thinks will go to the offices where weddings are celebrated. (follows)
Decoding
Return to the TOP SECRET
Digit organ
It is forbidden to make copies
No. of sheet 83
No. 1220 From New York
No. 81
Date: finish
She begs us to respond within a week, can I send them as her house is demolished as it occupies the city plan. In the letter she alludes that she donates these in memory of Noli, and complains that we did not respond to the letter for the past few months on what she wanted to do in memory of Noli and about which we have notified you by phone no. 197, dated 3 May 1972.
Rako
Written only in ink and in plain writing TOP SECRET
All corrections are certified by the signatory and compiler
No. of sheet 6
Coding
No. 377
Dated 31/1/1973
Address: Minister in New York
Regarding Noli’s secretary’s offer, do not reply, leave her alone. Take a correct attitude towards her, if she visits you and welcomes you humanely, you can also give her a symbolic gift. Try not to extract anything from it from Noli’s archive that has not been delivered to us. /Memorie.al
Reiz
