Evening star., 1939-01-04
By FRANK SMOTHERS,

By FRANK SMOTHERS,
Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
PARIS.-After the series of warn
' 1ngs received last spring from the
ministry Of popular culture for
what was called the 'unsympa-
thetic" or "unfriendly" tone of my
dispatches had brief respite from
the campaign.
Then came a fresh warning. On
July Signor Guido Rocco, head
OF the foreign press section of the
ministry, SUMMONED me to his spa
cious office above Via veneto. He
told me that Dino Alfieri, minister
OF popular culture, after reading
one OF my dispatches dealing with
ltaly's role vis-a-vis Spain, had ex-
pressed himself as feeling that a
correspondent who wrote such q
story should not be permitted to
remain in Italy. Alfieri, he added,
had then been prevailed upon not
to order my expulsion at that time.
But" said Rocco, "if we were
to find another dispatch like this
the results would be very disagree
able" He said: This is no threat,
but you must understand that we
retain the right to say who is per-
soma grata to us as correspondent"
I replied that all I had written
had been written honestly, and that
my purpose would continue to be
to learn what was true and deal
with it according to my best under
In oo4
and retracted nothing.
Respite From Italy.
Then came new respite from
Fascist pressure, for I was assigned
to cover Palestine and sent no more
dispatches from Italy for almost two
months. During my absence two
correspondents were expelled: Paul
Cremona, British subject, corre-
spondent of the Christian Science
Monitor, highly respected by Amer
lean and English newspapermen, on
vague charges that he had made,
not in his news dispatches, grave
insinuations against highly placed
parsonage" and Eduardo Kienlerer,
correspondent Of the Jewish Tele-
graph Agency, because he was a
Jew and MuSsolini had decided to
be super-Aryan.
During the September crisis cul-
minating in Munich and through
october heard nothing from the
ministry. I knew that certain 9TH
er correspondents had received
warnings. had not ceased to write
facts as found them. I was some
what surprised that none of my
kilograms reporting Mussolinis
persecution of the Jews nor those
in which recorded the unmistaka-
BILE revulsion of the average italian
against war on the side of Ger
many, nor those which told of the
loss of Italy's independent position
in Central and Eastern Europe as a
result Of the advance of Mussolini's
ally Hitler, brought fresh threats
Of expulsion.
None-save vague reference to
dangerous" dispatches-came un-
til the custer. On November 19
Rocco informed me that my dis
patch of November 16 on the Anglo
Italian pact which was put into
effect that day had prompted Alfieri
to order my expulsion.
Gable Digest of Dispatch.
"While all the rest of the world
greets the Anglo-Italian pact with
Joy, you write against it," he de-
clared. I had, indeed, emphasized
certain fundamentals which Italian
censors and Neville Chamberlain
would prefer all neWspapermen to
slide over. But Rocco flattered me
unduly In saying that alone failed
to greet the pact with joy" even in
Rome. Rocco had sentence after
sentence underlined in digest of
my dispatch as cabled back from
America and objected to each. He
reiterated that the tone of my dis
patches in the past had been bad.
He charged that wrote malicious
ly" and that had abused the hos
pitality of Italy"
I replied that had enjoyed my
stay in Italy and had looked forward
to its continuation, then added:
But must object to your saying
that I have written malicious arti-
cles or have violated hospitality. In
writing of political issues I know
that I have sent dispatches not
liked by the government. But I
have written honestly always I have
never written a line in malice. I
like the italian people, have en-
joyed living among them and re-
spect them. Nothing have written
has violated these sentiments, politi-
cal issues Notwithstanding.
"As for violating hospitality, you
must understand that neither Amer
lean correspondents in Italy nor Ital-
ian correspondents in America are
where they are for social reasons.
They are there as correspondents.
Thus my obligation has been to
write the truth as I understand it.
In doing so have never resorted
to methods of personal insult. If
the question of hospitality and NAL
Ice arises I would call your atten-
ton to the personal insults and
TRADES which I see again and again
IN the italian press concerning
America and Americans-for in
stance, a charge that President
Roosevelt is Jew and guided by
& Jews.
Reconsideration Refused.
I please understand that I do not
consider it an insult to call q man a
Jew If he is Jew, for I highly re-
Spect my own Jewish friends, but
when the word Jew is applied for
purposes of insult to people not Jews,
1t takes on different character.
Such personal insults against Amer
leans are my idea of malice and