# - Pankhurst, Sylvia.

written as editor of New Times and Ethiopia News, showing her support for the liberation of Albania as well as Ethiopia, and for bringing the issue before the British public ("...I think it is the right moment to take up Albania's case...one has to work early otherwise one finds that an opinion has been formed and hardened which one cannot break down in a short time..."), while explaining that she does not receive much news about Albanian affairs; her letters discuss the details of Duma's contributions to her newspaper and of a regular column on Albania, the promotion of the paper (especially among Albanians and MPs), administrative matters including print and layout, and subscriptions; in one long letter explaining how Ethiopian affairs have eclipsed her other concerns and detailing her efforts to organise a special Gathering for Albania, and in another asking Duma to participate in a Conference on Eastern Europe; 35 pages, 4to and 8vo, some letters annotated by Pankhurst or Duma, on headed stationery of New Times and Ethiopia News, 8 February 1941 to 28 March 1945, some browning and creasing, filing holes, some rust-marks from paperclips

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"...I quite agree with you that we do not require to embarrass the Government; what we must do is firmly to maintain the right of each country to its independence and territory and get the public opinion for that formed so that if there is any attempt at injustice, there will be enough people here who understand the position and are able to speak..."

"...At the Anglo-Albanian Committee yesterday it was stated that all Albanians in this country are now united. Is this correct? I must say I have all along had a good deal of sympathy with your views...but the danger throughout seems to me that Albania will be left high and dry, with the pretence that she is disunited, and therefore has no real existence..."

This collection of unpublished letters reveals a relatively unknown aspect of Sylvia Pankhurst's political work. According to one of her biographers, the Foreign Office described the Friends of Albania as having "no political colouration though probably dominated by Miss Pankhurst, an ardent Zogite" (Patricia Romero, E. Sylvia Pankhurst: Portrait of a Radical, 1987, p.212).

Copies of Duma's side of the correspondence are included in this lot, as well as a further letter by Pankhurst to Sir Edward Boyle, two letters with her facsimile signature, various enclosures, and related material (receipts, extracts from articles, distribution lists, and a quantity of contemporary presscuttings).