Speech #780068691

Our military experts tell us that because of transportation difficulties we cannot today send China much material aid in the shape of guns. tanks. planes. food. and so forth. aid that she needs so badly in order to carry on her heroic resistance against the Japanese aggressor. These military experts tell us we must first recapture the port of Rangoon. now in Japanese hands. and.reopen the Burma Road before we can send China the aid she needs so badly. Chinese military experts tell us that the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act will do muchto stiffen up the morale of the Chinese people and to help offset Japanese propaganda against the United States concerning our treatment of the Chinese people over the years. Our State Department very wisely removed one of the longstanding obstacles to good will between China and the United States when it voluntarily gave up our socalled extraterritorial rights in China. Now Congress has the opportunity to remove the other longstanding obstacle fo good will and full friendship between the two nations by repealing the Chinese Exclusion Act. thereby placing Chinaas far as immigration is concernedupon the same basis as other nations that have been given a quota. Mr. Speaker. Admiral Yarnell. an authority on the war situation in the Far East. considers the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act as a very necessary and vital part of our war effort. He testified before our Committee on Immigration and Naturalization as follows: Japan has utilized American exclusion laws with much effect in her propaganda campaign in China and other areas of the Far East. By the repeal of these laws this means of stirring up hatred of the western nations will be eliminated. In the consideration of the repeal of these laws. we also should look beyond the war to the peace settlement and the years to follow. * * * In order to insure peace in the Far East. there must be a strong. stable. and democratic. government in China. * * * It is my conviction that the repeal of these laws will have farreaching effects as a war and as a postwar measure.