Speech #780041413

The American people must do their share to alleviate the sufferings of these victims of Nazi wrath. We must insist that the conference does not turn into an exploratory meeting. but that it work out a concrete plan of action under which as many people as possible can be saved as soon as humanly possible. There is a rumor to the effect that the British Government claims Great Britain has done enough. that Churchill made the statement a week ago that they had done more than their share and that it was up to the rest of the United Nations to do something about the refugee problem. It may be true that up to now England has done more for the refugees than we have. But when the Prime Minister. asserting that Britain is maintaining a certain number of refugees in British territory and Pamestineincludes in this number not only legitimate refugees but also evacuees. internees. and prisoners of warit is not a very fair statement on prevailing conditions. The question as to Americas stand on the refugee problem has been raised all over the world. Our allies and friends are depending upon our traditional sympathy for the oppressed and persecuted while our enemies have been propagandizing the fact of our rather passive stand. We dare not fail the people who trust us so implicitly and we cannot afford to give more ammunition to our enemies by continued silence and inaction. The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization of which I have the honor of being chairman should be represented at that conference both by the minority and the majority so that we shall know definitely what legislation we may propose or recommend to the House at such time as we get the necessary information. It seems to me this committee has been ignored. The conference is scheduled to start on Monday. The ranking minority member of the committee. the gentleman from Illinois has introduced House Joint Resolution 209 authorizing the Speaker to appoint a select committee of three from the Committee on Immigration to sit in on this conference and study the question so that we may be able to intelligently propose some legislative remedy. As a Democrat I fully subscribe to thb policy outlined in this resolution and I submit to the House that the Committee on Rules should immediately consider this resolution and that the House should pass on it in order that we may approach this program in an intelligent manner. Up until a week ago 3.000.000 people had been killed. over 600.000 people were -in concentration camps. and over 5.500.000 people forced to become slaves of the Nazis.