Speech #780180443

To the Committee on Foreign Relations: Whereas the people of the United Nations look forward with growing confidence to the early prospect of victory and peace. and Whereas the wounded conscience of history demands that with the coming of victory and peace. the great historic wrongs against all peoples be permanently righted. in accordance with the highest moral and ethical teachings of the civilized world. and Whereas the Jewish people. which has contributed so much to human progress. was the first target of the Nazi aggressor. having undergone a ruthless process of slaughter resulting in the extermination of more than onethird of its number. and Whereas this gigantic catastrophe has reemphasized the tragic homelessness of the Jewish people and their need for a haven of refuge for the thousands who will survive this global holocaust. and Whereas by the consent and approval of our own great country. together with 51 other nations. a historic promise was made to the Jewish people in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 "to facilitate the establishment of a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine". and Whereas in the intervening decades the progress made by the Jewish national homeland has been among the most remarkable achievements of modern times. since more than a half million victims of prejudice and intolerance have been enabled without infringing on the rights of any other peoples or religious groups to reshape their lives in dignity and selfreliance on their ancestral soil. and Whereas the British white paper of May 1939a relic of the era of appeasement of the prePearl Harbor days---condemned by Mr. Winston Churchill as "a plain breach of solemn obligation." threatens the doom of the. Jewish national home by closing the doors of the Holy Land to further Jewish immigration as of March 31. 1944: Be it therefore Resolved. That we. citizens of the city of Indianapolis. gathered at the war memorial auditorium on Sunday. March 5.-1944. record our prayerful hope that the document known as the British white paper in Palestine be permanently scrapped. be it further Resolved.