The Flight from America
By JENNY NICHOLSON Rome.
E was unmistakably American. His clothes, his whole aspect, distinguished him from the Roman citizens who were milling around the piazza delighting in the Cool summer evening, enjoying each other's company, luxuriat- ing in the light of the twice-present moon which was suspend- ing itself above the golden roofs, trembling in the Bernini fountain. But sitting alone at the open air café table, sipping a negrone, he was difficult to place. A voluntary American expatriate would have been showing a transparent pleasure in the scene. He had not the formal look of an American diplo- mat, nor the bothered look of an American tourist. An American actor who had come to Italy to make a film would have been more self-conscious. A successful American writer Would probably have had a. calm, objective gaze and almost certainly a dog. Perhaps he was an unsuccessful writer. He was rather too old for a Fulbright scholar. Besides, an American student often• looks serious but seldom uneasy. No. He was one of the first American refugees of the cold war Who are beginning to appear in Europe—victims, directly or mdirectly, of McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities Committee and the wave of political suspicion.
So far there are not many of them. Probably fewer than two • hundred are dispersed over France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy. They-are not necessarily Communists. It is only neces- sary for somebody to have said that they are. For instance, to the woman in Connecticut who publicly denounced Paul Draper k as a Communist, thus discouraging theatre managers from em- ploying him, it stood to reason that he was one. After all, this dancing nephew of Ruth Draper had mixed with Communists. His mother was a Communist. He mixed with his mother. And the sins of the mothers, etcetera. . . . In order to make himself securely eligible to continue his, career it became necessary for Mr. Draper to Sue the lady from Connecticut for damaging his reputation. It happens to be Connecticut law that if you are being sued for damages your bank account and all your personal property including your house are frozen. This won the lady from Connecticut a good deal of sympathy, and the jury were unable to detide whether or not Mr. Draper Was a Communist. So, unable to afford a re-trial, he left for Europe with his family to look for work. The Open Gate Club in Rome where Mr. Draper gave an audition for cabaret is the haunt .of the smart and the rich. It was launched with Marshall Plan money as a meeting place 'for Italians and Americans. Mr. Draper is a great dancer, and the club patrons are used to the best of everything. But he was not hired. As he finished his audition, someone leaned towards the woman manager. of. the club : " Tell me," he asked casually, " has he been cleared yet ? " So Paul Draper moved on to try his luck in Switzerland.
If he had tried to get work from one of the Nenni Socialists or Communists who control so many of Italy's theatres, they would have had nothing to lose by employing him. On the Other hand, Communist or left-wing Socialist film producers risk losing American distribution by employing Communists or anyone suspected of Communism. Mr. Harry Goldberg, American Federation of Labour representative, lately come to Italy from Asia, is here to press home this point—" which we do in the most friendly possible way." That many of the Italian film producers are ready to co-operate manifested itself In the case of Marc Lawrence, an American actor who has been living in Rome with his wife and two children and Playing successful tough guys in films since soon after his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Corn- puttee as a " friendly witness." 'The committee accepted his statement that he had given up Communism since 1939 and Would defend his country against Russia with his life. " I feel that strongly about it." Recently, an item in a film trade Paper accused him of non-cooperation in the Communist Purge. Although it was retracted the 'next day, he found it necessary to get complete clearance again from America. The good news was announced in the Rome Daily American towards the end of last month in a headline " Capital, Holly- wood Give Actor Clean Bill."
Quite apart from any American pressure, Italy's anti-Com- munist Government, Trade Unions leaders and Press are sympathetic to Mr. Goldberg's mission. An editor of a leading weekly commissioned an article on Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect, who is currently designing a building in Venice. When he came to publish it he heard that Mr. Lloyd Wright was on McCarthy's Red-list. He reluctantly paid the author the full price, but was afraid he couldn't use the piece. The author had already placed the article in a liberal weekly when the editor discovered it was not Mr. Lloyd Wright who was on the Red-list, but another Wright with a different set of Christian names. .
The Italian police are also co-operative. A secretary work- ing for one of the American missions here was called to the American Conplate last week. She was politely requested to bring her passport. which was taken from her and stamped " Valid for journey to United States only." She was given to understand that, she was considered a subversive—something which had apparently emerged from between the closely printed lines of a form she had recently completed. Within four hours of this incident, the Italian police appeared at her hotel, ordered her to pack, and escorted her down to Naples and on to a boat bound for the United States. Her friends are hoping that she will be able to clear herself, as they say she is "a nice, simple kid who maybe ought to have known better than go around with 'a couple of Communist boys in Hollywood a few years ago." They fear that she may have to return to Europe to look for work because " once your name gets to be associated with an inquiry, folks tend to recollect that you were up before the Committee—not whether they acquitted you or not."
These unfamous ex-government employees have a rather hard time finding a job in the overflowing European labour market. The international organisations often have jobs for Americans, but it is a civil offence under American law for a citizen of the United States to take a job with any of them without " written clearance." They must fill up, in quadrupli- cate, a four-page form called " Personal Data for Employment of a United States Citizen." This requires such information as their addresses for the last fifteen years, foreign countries visited, dates and purpose, relatives and their political sym- pathies. There are 'the familiar two questions for lunatics :— ' Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party or any. Communist or Fascist Organisation ? " and " Are you or have you ever been a member of a group advocating (a) overthrow of the constitutional form of govern- ment of the United States, or (b) use of force to deny others their constitutional rights, or (c) altering the form of the United States government by unconstitutional means." The applicant is required to produce three references and to have his fingerprints taken on another form. The subsequent scrutiny and clearance takes so long that International Organ- isations prefer hiring other nationals who aren't so much trouble.
Fear is a normal ingredient of every day life for Italians. Fear of the porter of their block of flats (police dossiers are compiled largely from information supplied by porters who are compelled to keep a record of everyone living there); fear of unemployment (there is a permanent pool of two million unemployed and twice that number only semi-employed); fear of their neighbour (who might be a tax informer); fear of the law (which is quick to arrest, slow to bring to trial); fear of bad health (hospitals are backward, social services inade- quate); fear of the Party (which causes those in politically biased areas always to have the most acceptable newspaper sticking out of their pockets). To the Italians, the fear of most Americans to be associated in any way with the extreme left is just another fear, un- remarkable. But to the Americans themselves their fear is rather shameful. Although members of American missions and embassies almost universally condemn " the two bad Macs," they are quick to resent the slightest suggestion that they have to be careful whom they meet and what they say Left of Centre. For it is inherent in them to believe in Freedom of Speech. American journalists seem particularly nervous. The Foreign Press Club in Rome organised a good-bye party for two of its members who had been simultaneously trans- ferred to other bureaux—the correspondent of a New York paper and the correspondent of the Russian News Agency, Tass. At the last moment the American correspondent declined the honour of sharing the party with his Russian colleague. Of some thirty American members only two appeared at the luncheon. There was the time when the Russian-born wife of one of the American correspondents in Italy had to enter- tain a group of American businessmen's wives to tea. At the appropriate moment the iced cake was borne in. A shocked silence fell. As what she imagined to be a compliment to her mistress, the simple-minded maid had inscribed on the cake in scarlet icing Viva Stalin. She was sacked the same evening. The new fugitives are the most nervous of all. Most of them are disinclined to meet each other. All they ask is a job and obscurity until the time McCarthyism_dies down and they will be able to go home. Most of the many who were approached excused themselves from being interviewed at all. One made an appointment and funked it. One was suddenly called out of town. One went to elaborate trouble to explain that he was here to avoid income tax. These people who have made one mistake—joined the Communist party at an impressionable age, shown too much enthusiasm in collecting war Aid to Russia, signed a telegram of congratulations (with a lot of others) to the Moscow Theatre on its fiftieth anni- versary, been friendly with Paul Robeson but " unfriendly " to the House Un-American Activities Committee—are afraid of making another mistake by drawing attention to themselves.
Two actually asked to be quoted, but since they are both applying for Italian nationality perhaps they were being rather rash. One said : " You can describe us as refugees from the Great Refuge." The other cried : " First Communism —now America ! My God, have my Gods failed me.! " There was one who asked to be nameless. He was standing at the window of his Roman apartment. His wife had gone to the market. He was looking out on Victorian, unfashion- able Rome; The seedy rented desk and sideboard were covered with reminders of ,home—coloured snaps of a white clapboard house, very American Children in blue jeans fooling around with the garden hose and some dogs. The same children were coming home from school, now skipping from shade to shade under the oleander trees, banging each other with their wicker lunch baskets. In their black alpaca overalls that button at the back they looked very European. " I guess the kids are already little Italians. Three generations ago my folks left Italy to make good in the States. They made good." He turned back into the room, offering a Nazionale cigarette: "Now, I guess, we're right back where we started : we'll just have to begin all over." But there are a few who prefer not to go home just now. Students who, during their studies in Europe, 'have mixed with foreign students who experiment in revolution and counter- revolution. To have been the companions of young Com- munists and Fascists, indeed, sometimes to have been quite moved by their arguments, is liable to cause you trouble back home. After all they can't be sure that Senator McCarthy knows the difference between Left Wing and Left Bank.
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