4pQonT

EZRA POUND 241
to bring him to trial, for, perhaps, if they were to lose the case, an
important precedent would have been set, and it would have been
difficult to obtain convictions against others who aired their opinions.
In any event, his radio broadcasts would have had to be
examined in the light of their effect.
Pound's appeal to his countrymen to get out of the war was
even more quixotic than his request that they look to their Constitution.
Many in England and the United States who were suspected
of being lukewarm about prosecuting the war were put in
a concentration camp. Thousands of native-born citizens, as well
as "enemy aliens", spent the war years in these camps without
trial. Most of them lost their property. A refugee from the Nazis,
whom I knew for some years in New York, told me that the
English took no chances with anyone; they even put the refugees
from the Nazi concentration camps into their own camps for the
duration of the war.
The New York Times of September 8, 1943, noted an announcement
by Radio Rome that "Ezra Pound was not and had
never been in our employ. He began transmitting before America
entered the war. Yes, we gave him permission to use our microphone
with the stipulation that he should not be asked or expected
to say anything contrary to his conscience or contrary to his duties
as an American citizen."
This was an unusual stipulation, but it was observed by both
parties. Nevertheless, Pound's position in Italy was not a comfortable
one. According to Carlo Scarfoglio, in Paese Sera, June 16,
1954, the Italian government seized Pound's bank account as an
enemy alien, kept him under observation, and questioned his
friends. Camillio Pellizzi, onetime president of the Institute for
Fascist Culture, reported in Il Tempo, March 20, 1953, that
Fascist secret police repeatedly questioned him about Pound, asking
whether he thought the broadcasts might not be code messages
to the Allies.
Pellizzi also stated, "I had many occasions to be in contact with
Mr. Ezra Pound through his cultural activities and also because
of my personal friendship with him, and I can assure you that he
was never a member of the Fascist party."
This statement was corroborated in a letter written by the Mayor