Speech #780170416

I do not believe that it was really the intention of these important public officials to stand in the way of our passage of this resolution. I am positive that the Palestine resolution is cl6sely linked to the question of rescue of the Jewish people. The creation by the President of a War Refugee Board aims at the same object. We must not forget that the entire problem is only one and can only be treated as one. It will do no good to separate the various activities and lose sight of the principal question. which is the question of rescue of human lives. If we permit the British Government to continue witil its White Paper and ban Jewish immigration into Palestine. the entire work of the War Refugee Board will be futile from the start. How can the War Refugee Board help to rescue anybody if the most obvious place of rescue. Palestine. should be closed to a considerable portion of Hitlers victims? But. aside from any question of humanitarianism and aside from the fact that America has always prided herself as being the asylum for the oppressed. how can we as their allies possibly forget the great debt of gratitude which Britain owes to the Jews of Palestine for their fine record in the present war.