3 Marzo

S.E. Il Capo dell'Ufficio Stampa
Roma

Eccellenza

Notizia recivuta hieir che " The Central Office
of the Conservative Party ( Londra ) comonica svegliarsi. E
che tutti i ufficiali hanno ricevuti un circolare comandando
a loro di studiare l' economia Douglasista ( C.H.Douglas ) "
in una derivazione " Nationalist Economy ".

Douglas è l'economista di quali parlai col
Capo del Governo, quando ero priviligato di vederlo l'anno
scorso. Temo d'aver parlato confusamente, per fretta.

Il punto di partenza di Douglas è :

ogni fabbrica
ogni industria ( sotto la sistema attuale ) produce " prezzi "
più velocemente che non distribuisce la potenza d'acquisto.

...

Ricevo d'America una notizia meno precisa che alcuni
senatori stanno preparando un " Bill " ( misura ) Douglasista.
mancano dettagli.

...

I
Maioria di noi tre sono state presenti.

Mi pare in verita che la lira non é bassata sul oro, ma
sul S.E. Il Capo del Governo, e quindi non piu in giuoco

Ufficio Stampa del Capo del Governo
Sezione Estera

Roma, 9 marzo 1934 - XII

1072/229

Egregio Signore,

Il Capo dell'Ufficio Stampa ha ricevuto la Sua cortese lettera del 3 marzo u.s. e mi ha incaricato di farLe pervenire i Suoi rin-graziamenti per le notizie da Lei forniteGli.

Al tempo stesso il Conte Ciano mi ha incaricato di farLe sapere che, ove per l'av-venire Ella nelle Sue comunicazioni preferis-se usare la Sua lingua materna, l'inglese, Egli non vi vedrebbe alcun inconveniente, essendoGli detto idioma fami-gliare.

Gradisca, Egregio Signore, gli atti della mia distinta considerazione

Signor
Ezra POUND
Via Marsala, 12-5

RAPALLO

As I think it as good as any prose I have written I
can't put this down to prejudice against me, but as
sign of unwillingness to receive what I believe a fair
and just account of Italy, and of the constructive nature
of Italian Fascism.

The anti-fascist doct�naires are hopeless. The honest men
are often far from the centre of power. I can not find
anyone in England who understands Europe, though an increasin
number of Englishmen are " on to " Rothermere, Niemeyer,
Bark? Herb. Lawrence, Vickers, the Bank of Eng.

When I say Englishmen, I mean the honest one,
the danned rascals understand international rascality, all
right enough.

So long as these people are trusted as you
wd. trust cobras, I have nothing to say. But is is
pleasant to know that both Rother/ and Beaver got
swatted at the recent London Elections.

IF you have need of an honest party in
England, I believe the GREEN SHIRTS are that. And I
am sending you a marked copy of New Democracy, which
may shed a little light on the matter.

Whatever the superficial differences, the details
procedure, this is the constructive party, and

S.E. Il Capo dell'Ufficio Stampa
del Capo del Governo.

Dear Conte Ciano

I feel a cheap skate and a bit of a fool
for not having found some means of getting by Jefferson/
Mussolini into print YES. BUT... for what it is worth
I am copying part of a letter from London re/ what must
be about the 35 th. rejection of the book.

Letter from my agent, with copy of Warburg's letter to him
(from Routledge, who are doing my ABC of Reading)

" The chief trouble is Pound's indiscriminate
admiration of Mussolini, which he is not able to back up
with much evidence, and which wd. be a far from popular
doctrine to preach in this country at the moment. I am
etc... returning typescript...we have finally declined it. "

That's that I Effect of ten years British
newspaper slop.

On the other hand our best american historian, W.E. Woodward
(author of Washington Image and Man, etc) has written a
very strong letter of recommendation of the book, to
Liveright Inc.

He is on the *residents Business Advisory Council
and has recently been made member of Industrial Advisory Board
(fifteen members, all the other heads of large corporations)
.. their job is to" pass on the codes "
sort of final court on F.D.R's codes .

["If Italy were an island, and there weren't Austria, Hungary, France etc etc etc... I should be a good deal more urgent.", "At the same time the convergence of fascism and the Douglas "Social Credit" movement must strike anyone who has a dispassionate interest in both, or perhaps dispassionate is too cold a word."]

Nevertheless his words are

"To a considerable extent I disagree with his estimate of M.

In my opinion M. is a constructive force, and not destructive as many American believe, etc... BUT it may be that constructive achievement costs too much... etc...

I am sending this along ( to be shown to Il Capo del Governo if you see fit.) simply as indication of states of opinion that still exists, and being from private letters between publisher's advisors and publishers are not in any way dressed up.

Woodward is now practically DOUGLASITE, and the recent economic measure here OUGHT to penetrate his understanding.

At any rate it is some consolation to me. I mean I had for eight months been feeling that the book was useless because there was no one who needed convincing. by the time it HUHU might finally get into print.

How much it matters a hoot WHAT they think in other

7 Luglio

[1934]

Il Conte Galloazzo Ciano

Recellenza

Questo note in proposito della morte del Re
Alberto nonché arrivato adesso. Sono compiutamente fuori del
mio compito, ma credo che devono esser mostrato al Capo del
Governo.

con espressioni di alta stima

S/E/ Il Conte Galenazzo Ciano

Becelenza

It's in small print, and not quite all of it printed,
but after all the "Post" is the "Post", and it contains one
phrase that might be useful. I don't think it's been used in
England before.

con espressioni di alta stima.

Post
for 25
6ct

SIB/ di Stato/ Stampa e Propaganda.

S.E. Il Conte Galeazzo Ciano

S/S/ per la Stampa

My Dear Conte Ciano

I very much doubt the use of paid
press propaganda, and there seems to be a weight of
evidence in favour of this view, which I believe you
more or less share.

Certainly a pamphlet like the Chicago Trib/
affair is NO bay/ use.

Fortune's grudging account, is probably
some use. I don't know whether you approve their falsification.
I forget the figures, but if I recall, they reported
the Capo del Governo as worried by trade balance, but
naturally did not mention the income from foreign
investment which balances ( I shd/ think fairly evenly )
the " adverse " trade balance ( in the best style of the
orthodox "British scoundrels; who have been working that honk
..as have most countries ..for god knows how long, as an excuse
for grinding down the people, the middle class, the industrialis
tutti quanti.

I have persuaded a large paper ( with I believe
considerably great cire/ than Fortune ) that it might be safe
to turn me onto something less innocuous than the fine arts.
turned
( having indeed t/aa/ZZ my article on Gaudier into

Esquire sells 180,000 copies at 50 cents. and has
the best photo/ and colour reprod in the U.S.A.

There is no use in my trying to pass in
any Italian glory unless I can get the PHOTOS/ and they
have got to be exclusive and better than those handed
to anyone else.

2 years ago all american foreign correspondents where ordered
to " hold down "/ meaning to send as little damn nooz about
Yourup as possible. The american people do not care one
underdone damn WHAT happens in JUBilee europe. If something
strikes them as funny , they'll read it.

Esquire being non political , can't carry much of
my economic conviction. But the opere della regime , or
some real photos/ of Marconi's apparatus/ etc. might get
by.

I was sted yesterday , or perhaps not , at any rate I
tried to explain the Dalmatian problem... I have no idea
whether this will get into print.

Brother Warburg ( late delegate to the Econ/ Conference
in London.) has got all tangled up in his hind feet trying to
ask answer my Volitionist questions.

If you want SERIOUS attention from the
intelligent FEW who ultimately form pubk/ opinion after

has got to say something that PARTICULAR individuals
will quote/ and the better those individuals, the quicker
and louder they'll quote it.

If a sunt housing wd/ A&A interest Dekruif who
is writing in the L.H.J. ( goes to million, or heaven
knows how man millions ). But the 80 year limit on the
scheme is too slow for the American mind', and don't move
the living real economists.

U.S.
Re/ our idiot Sec/ Wallace.

IF THE GOVT. owns beasts and crops sufficiently to order
their destruction, it owns 'em quite enough to issue orders
for their delivery I.E. currency paper against them.

You might note that even the Morning Post ( London ) is opening
its columns to living economics, Douglasites, "esellism
and il sottoscritto.

In the long run you can't buy propaganda, or eat any rate
the propaganda that s count is the writing of men with
decent convictions who want to see a world fit to live in.

As for investment. I do not believe it needs foreign capital/
but if you want a bond issue, it ought to be both easy
and sound/ to get one for the purchase of as much of Dalmatia
as is really conducive to the general comfort of both countries.
That wd/ induce investment, and help credit more than
expenditure on munitions.

obt. svt.

Stato civile/ DEATHS : Scarcity economics died in Milan yesterday at 4.14 P.M. no mourners in attendance. No flowers.

Photographs of the funeral/ a few of the port of Zara, with that damn island in the front yard / etc. might be useful. also a couple of the " opere della regine ".

P.M. Bardi has a good eye for photos/ if he is working with the department. But one never knows what he is doing.

S.E. Il Conte Galeazzo Ciano

S/S.di Stato/ per Stampa

Eccellenza

I don't know that my occasional notes are any use
and obviously as an isolated student of current history
I have no adequate means of checking up on ANYthing.

In view of the recent very efficient assassinations
however, the Sept. Ist. issue of "World-Service" is interesting.
Had this # filled moneographed sheet come into my hands
a month ago, I might not have noticed it. It is "rabid"
(or not as the case may be) or at any rate definitely
and exclusively anti-semitic; but the issue for Sept. Ist,
gives an account of the multiplication of masonic lodges
in Jugo/Slavia since the war.

I'll send it along if you want it.

I have never had any answer or indication as to whether the
periodicals and services I indicated to Sig. Polverelli are
received regularly, or at all by the Press Bureau.

The " World Service " may also supply a clue to
a couple of IDIOTIC articles in American magazines which had
been puzzling me. They are idiotic to the point of being
funny. However, it is just possible that the " sales-resistance "
or the " printing-resistance " to fair Italian news, is due
to something more than natural rural incuriosity and lack
of intellectual appetite. You know, probably, Upton Sinclair's
"Money Writes ". 

Some of the failure to give just proportion
in reports of great Milan speech is simple and sincere ignorance

; good chaps who have got old and stiff in the mind, and
just can't take it in.

Also, they resist British press lies on
subjects they KNOW about, but they unconsciously absorb
lies about unfamiliar countries and subjects.

I shd/ think the Morning Post was 80% more honest than the
Times, which I see more frequently quoted in your papers.

At any rate there are MH men on the post
who don't resist honest statement, whereas I have never
detected honesty on the Times. In the dept. I know best
it is above petty personal silliness, but that is a means
to greater efficiency.

British press filth being 100% superior
to French journalistic corruption. Even in Rafallovitch Papers
supposed to show up France, we find a letter to Park
suggesting a douceur to some chap

" 10,000 roubles as is paid to the Times and the
Telegraph ".

con espressioni di stima

Sottosegretariato di State
per la Stampa e la Propaganda
IL DIRETTORE GENERALE
PER IL SERVIZIO DELLA STAMPA ESTERA

Roma, 2 novembre 1934-XIII

Sig. Ezra POUND
Via Marsala, 12-5

RAPALLO

Accogliendo di buon grado la richiesta con-
tenuta nella Sua lettera del 2I ottobre u.s., si ha
il pregio di inviare qui unite alcune fotografie Lu-
ce del recente viaggio del Duce a Milano e di alcune
località della Dalmazia.

Gradisca, egregio signore, i sensi della mia
ben distinta considerazione

./.

CINQUE SETTEMBRE 1934 - GIORNARIO CIRCOLARE

re/ 5372 /
????? BU 3

Sottosecretario di Stato
Stam/rop/

La ringrazio le fotografie, che mando oggi a Chicago/

Do anche le triste notizie della morte subito e
fulminante di A/R /Orage, direttore del New English Weekly,
poche ore dopo il suo discorso sul radio/

( non sono ancora sodisfatto
che la morte era naturale ).

Era il publicista e direttore inglesb im PIU
ONESTO, e la perdita piu grave che l Inghilterra avrebbe pututo
subire in campo economico e nella lotta per " pia alta giustizia
sociale " nei ultimi anni in corresponza continua e violenta,
io l'avevo educato un po' in proposito dell Italia, non
condividendo la mia opinione in pieno, almeno me permetteva
di espreinere quanto egli credevo comprehensibile all suo publico,
egli

e nel ultimo anno parlava con rispetto
sempre crescendo del Duce, non confondendolo coi altri uomini
di stato, e non mancando di dar elogi meritati,

pur rimanendo settarico ( ma convinto e giusto e
sincerissimo delle teorie Douglasisti ...

in modo leale e construttivo.

La morte non deve passare ignota in Italia.
Mi pare che Odon Por ha già scritto in Gerarchia, e sarebbe
indicato per far scrivere un apprezzamento di fumebra,
indicando le speranze, la sincerita, la forza
MORA! DEL Orage, e magari la convergenza delle movimente.

Perche i canici verde in Inghilterra
sono ( in mia opinione ) più vicini allo spirito BASALE,
all' ONESTA fascista, che quelli che hanno preso
superficiali
insogni e vestiti conformi.

" L'incremento d'associazioni "

" L'eredità culturale "

sono DELLO spirito fascista, quanto del economia specificamente
Douglasista.

I mode e particolarita della regenerazione
non possono essere indentichì in due paese di storia
tanta differente, e in una razza così diversa.

Orage ed il Duce cominciavano nel
Guild Socialism / e titti due vedevano la necessita di
SVILUPPARE, di uscire ...

Inghilterra avrebbe potuto perdere qualsiasi altro
uomo di stato o della publicita con meno dauno alla
vita public o economica; pur che Orage era quasi ignoto
al grosso pubblico, ( le braghe molte della letterature,
il vero Nitismo, evasione della responsibilità etc..

Sottosecretario di Stato
per la Stampa

Eccellenza

Thanks very much for letter of 19th. inst.
ref/ 5097

I will come to Rome as soon as I get Esquire's Editor to
make an absolute statement to me. In the interim I can't
guarantee his behaviour. He is better than most, but he wrote
me a month ago that one of my articles was " incomprehensible"
(to everyone in the office), and that as he himself understood
it, he could not EXPLAIN to me, WHY other people did not.

In the interim if you will send me the best available
photos of Zara, at a few others showing the works of
Italian culture in Dalmatia, most exposed to the barbarous
idiocy of the dalmatians & hooligans (to be referred to
in parliamentary language), also a couple of good
a view of the Milan speech, preferably that have NOT YET
appeared, or not in papers of large circulation, I will
do what I can with them.

If someone in the office will add a few notes to the Dalmatian
photos, It will help. It is the one part of Italy I don't
know at first hand.

[1934]

Capo dell'Ufficio Stampa

Dear Conte Ciano

I didn't send on my New English Weekly letter when I read the paper, because it didn't seem to me sufficiently important.

I can not make out how much it matters, or whether it matters at all, what IMDECILITIES are printed about Italy.

However, the enclosed attack has just come.

Possibly a matter of timing. I can NOT believe Rothermere is honest or that the B.U.F. is particularly pure in heart. Possibly 30% of its members mean well ... (I am willing to be reassured ... BUT//////

I don't know whether the DUCE said/ be bothers with these great bites. And I can not judge the timing, but I wish he could make some economic declaration that we/ be absolutely clear.

The Pope has done pretty fairly well in denouncing international finance. But it isn't ENOUGH. Roosevelt wobbles either or you.

It seems to me that there cd/ be AT LEAST a public
declaration that

It is infamous that the STATE should get into debt to
individuals BY THE VERY ACT of creating real wealth.

whether one go any further in specifying the means of
avoiding bond issues, or not.

An engineer named Hammond writes me that the heresy
that money is a commodity was propounded by the
perditissimus heresiarch Calvin. ( at any rate it is all
of a piece with the maniacal sadism of calvinism ).

I take it the church is committed to the truth and
true doctrine that money is a ticket againsts goods
( a ticket which can be issued " as certificate of work
done ".

AND once that is understood the whole galling BOTHER
of taxation CA N be eliminated.

There are two new british periodicals plugging for
contemporary economics. Borah has sent me his radio speech
indicating enlightenment on ONE point ( all that can be done
in one talk ).

or function as a banker until he is capable and ready to
answer then :

I. What is an auxiliary currency ?

II. When money is rented who ought to pay the rent,
the man who has the money when the rent falls due,
or someone who hasn't it ?

III. What is the result of every industry, every factory,
under the present system, creating prices FASTER than it
emits the power to buy.

con espressioni di alta stima

28 Jan

XIII

S/E/. Il Sottosegretario di Stato
Per Stampa e Propaganda.

Dear Conte Ciano

Re/ yrs/ the 17 th, a real cooperation
between American and Italian intelligence will start when we
blow hell out of the University systems in BOTH countries.
In re/ Literary studies , that is higher literary studies it
will have be done on some such METHOD as I have outlined in
my ABC of Reading.

In the mean time I wish you ed/ get the Capo del Governo to
give ten minutes consideration to BASIC ENGLISH,

This is a serious proposition. Ogden
has, by years of work, and very serious consideration of
the MEANING of words, reduced the necessary English vocabulary
to 850 words.

plus special vocabularies for specific sciences. It is not
an " artificial or freak language like Esperanto ", but real
understand all
English , and can be used even as AAL/FRY/ discipline.

It won't enable a man to appreciate % psychological
, but can be used for all necessary TRANSMISSION
poetry
; all commerce . The translation of the Duce's speech

( made in English in 1931), into this BASIC, is given in "Debabelization", and you can see that it retains ample force.

The first European nation to use BASIC, as the basis of their teaching of English in schools, will get an immense advantage over all other.

I shall be publishing an article on it in the New English Weekly, next month, (Considering it as discipline for writers).

You can SAY anything you like ME in it.

I can have some of the books on it, sent you. With the new Minister of Education, I take it a non-sentimental, and practical idea is more likely to get into action, than it would under some aesthetes or literary sentimentalist.

very truly yours.

P.A.

MINISTERO
PER LA STAMPA E LA PROPAGANDA
IL DIRETTORE GENERALE
PER IL SERVIZIO DELLA STAMPA ESTERA

Roma, 3 ottobre 1935-XIII

Egregio Signor Pound,

E' pervenuto a S.E. il Capo del Governo il
Suo libro "Jefferson and/or Mussolini", che la S.V.
ha voluto cortesemente inviar gli con la Sua lettera
del 23 u.s.

Nel rendermi interprete, per incarico ricevu-
to dei ringraziamenti dell'Eccellenza Sua, mi valgo
dell'occasione per porgerLe, Egregio Signore, gli at-
ti della mia ben distinta considerazione

RAPALLO

Vorrei otto minuti che non sarauno ni vuoti ni vacui.
Mi pare dobbiamo propriamente consultare per trovare
FRA miei idee, e convinzioni, quella parte che puo meglio
SERVIRE in un dato ciòmo al' Itala; dato lo stato
di spirito, e di ignoranza Americana dell' Italia d'oggi.

Sara impossibile trasmettere tutta la mia filosofia, tutte le
notizie, tutti le miei convinzioni in una serrata.

Verro a Roma verso il 2 Decembre, portando delle note, e
spero che S.E. puo ricevermi per consultare, per evitare
ch io parlo in ora inoyportuno.

La stupidita di certi intellettuali é che vogliono
parlare di tutto senza riguardo del tempo, che confondono
il laboratorio col foro.

And so forth. At any rate, as Sunday is the 2nd., I could
come down on the 1st, if you want to take it slowly,
or I will come down on the Sunday, if you see me on
the Monday.

I want to know whether the transmission is DIRECT
or whether it is relayed by American stations who could
cut me off if they disliked it,

though I dare say I can
find a means of speaking gently enough to pass them,
con espressioni di alta stima.

IL SOTTOSEGRETARIO DI STATO
PER LA STAMPA E LA PROPAGANDA

Rome, January 17th 1935.XIII

900519

Dear Mr. Pound,

May I express my sincere thanks for your kindness in giving your talk on Friday last - the 11th instant - at the E.I.A.R. studios, in our special programs for the United States from our new short-wave station.

Your cooperation in this work is a proof of the spirit of collaboration between Italy and the United States in the field of culture.

Thanking you again, I wish to remain,

Mr. Ezra Pound
Hotel Italia
Via Quattro Fontane
Rome