Salvemini Fumes at Red Misquotes

"Communist deceit" put the name of Gaetano Salvemini on a pressure telegram slamming American interference in the Italian elections, the Lauro do Bois Lecturer on the History of Italian Civilization said yesterday.

The telegram, widely publicized in yesterday's papers, was sent to President Truman on Wednesday under the names of 80 persons, including Salvemini. This was done, the historian said, despite repeated pretests that his signature be omitted.

Salvemini Was Author

Newspapers also cited him as author of the message, which urged an "end to all outside interference" and blasted "the participation of the American ambassador in the Italian electoral campaign."

Salvemini said he had drawn up a tentative draft of the message, but refused to sign unless it contained the sentence. "American interference is no less deplorable than that of Soviet Russia or the Vatican." The final telegram did not include this sentence.

On both Monday and Tuesday evenings, Salvemini strongly protested against "the abuse which would have been made of my name if the signature had not been deleted." He also insisted he would have nothing to do with Communists and fellow travellers.

"Those who released the document," Salvemini said, "did not delete my signature and also kept signatures of many other persons who signed the primitive draft thinking it was the final text. In addition, it was falsely stated that I was the author of the document of which they had become responsible.

Lashes at Communists

"I would never have thought it possible that even Communists and fellow travellers would have recourse to such tricks as publishing a tentative draft as a final document authorized by the man who had drawn up a different final text, and then signing it with names collected under false pretenses," Salvemini insisted.

Other signatures on the telegram were these of Senator Glen Taylor, Leonard Bernstein '89, Olin Downes, and Louis Adamic.

Salvemini will and his teaching career at Harvard this June with the conclusion of his course on the history of the Italian Risorgiamento.