Speech #800198184

Frankand after escaping with his family was put in a German concentration camp. Some American ladies and the AmerIcan Red Cross are trying to help but until now very little was done. The refugees do not get even the German rations of 1.200 calories. children have no milk. and some babies already died of undernourishment in the camps. There is no sanitary or medical equipment. The refugeesAs Mr. Harold W. Melahn. from the editorial staff of Columbia Journal of International Affairs put in his letter to a Czechoslovak diplomatwould willingly bear the temporary troubles if they knew that western organizations and governments were seriously preparing to help them. I believe that any aid would have incalculable value in restoring morale and would give added courage to the freedomloving Czechoslovaks who have forsaken families and homeland rather than to submit to tyranny. Help given to the refugees would encourage the majority of the Czechs and Slovaks at home. that means. the majority of the nation that is opposing communism and totalitarianism. The Czechoslovak Communistdominated Government set up a very successful propaganda telling by means of radio and newspapers that the traitors who escaped the country are living in misery. and that those whom they served. the western democracies. would not lift a finger to help them. Free Czechoslovaks all over the world. and especially Americans of Czech and Slovak descent. are trying to help those refugees by organizing relief funds. But this kind of help can be only a temporary solution. If we cannot find a solution of this problem. it would be a very poor sign of working democracy. The morale of those refugees is very high. They are valuable citizens and could be very useful to any country that would adopt them. They want to work and fight for democracy and freedom. The bill discussed is intended to help some 24 percent of the total number of the displaced persons. It would be of great importance if the great democracy of the United States of America could help at least 25 percent of the Czechoslovak refugees so as to encourage the other democratic countries to do the same for the remaining 75 percent. We could not expect help from other countries if the leading democracy would not be able to extend any help to the martyrs of democracy. The immigration laws of the United States do not allow the entry to this country of those political refugees. even the most prominent ones. who do not have the reentry permit to another state. The Czechoslovak mass emigration is an exceptional case which needs a solution. There was no mass emigration from any other country after the World War H. where the democracy was overthrown by Communist minority. The Czechs and Slovaks in exile have many relatives in this country. the American population of Czech and Slovak descent numbers over 1.000.000 people. and they would be willing to support their relatives and the unfortunate people from their country of origin to a great extent. If Czechoslovak refugees could not benefit by the bill. they. as well as the democratic people in Czechoslovakia. would lose all hope and faith. and all the democratic people all over the world who fight for democracy and freedom would lose theirs ih a living democracy. The Czechoslovaks fled their country. encouraged by the solemn declaration of the three western great powers condemning the Communist coup. in the hope that they. as martyrs of democracy. really would find full practical support and a free country to live in until Czechoslovakia would be again a democratic country. The Czechoslovak oneparty elections. held on May 30. 1948. showed clearly that the Czechoslovaks did not lose their faith in democracy and in the efficiency of democratic methods The courage of 1.600.000 voters. who either voted with clear ballots or abstained from the electionswhich was both described by the Communist rulers in Czechoslovakia as treasonable activityand exposed themselves to persecution. the voting being practically not secret. Many of those courageous Czechoslovaks will increase the number of the refugees in the next weeks. The Czechoslovak refugees are expecting action from the leading democratic Nation. The action by the United States Congress would show to other countries the practical way. how to solve this urgent problem of democracy. Even If only some 25 percent of the Czechoslovak refugees could find a new home in the United States and if. acording to the bill. some 3.000 Czechoslovak refugees would be admitted to the United Statesthe remaining 7.000 to 9.000 could be more easily admitted to other democratic countries. It would be a terrible disappointment to the "democratic Czechoslovaks. who were fighting in the Allied army and air force. who were for many years in German concentration camps. if they could not be eligible displaced persons and if they had the only choice to return to their country to death or longterm prisons. They cannot do it. of course. But where should they go if the doors would be closed to them to democratic countries? Even those refugees who got temporary visitors visas to the United States or disclosed their resolution not * to return to their countryresigned diplomats. students. and so forthbecause of a certainty of persecution. are threatened by the immigration laws -to be deported from the United States. They have no legal possibility to live even temporarily in the United States. There Is a great probability that the Czechoslovak refugees would become registered in the nearest future by the IRO. If it would be so. there is no reason why the date of April 21. 1947. should be applied against them. The Czechslovak emigration is after World War II the only mass emigration of genuine political refugees from a country. When the bill was prepared. the problem did not yet exist. but since it became the most urgent problem of our time. The fate of Czechoslovakia. the death of Masaryk. and so forth. aroused world opinion and were a reminder and a lesson to democracies. 1ie most uecisive ques the displacedpersons an problem should be. if tho really in danger for their liefs and convictions. If t homeless because they can their country of origin. I yak refugees are really be category. They are truth and cannot return home. The Honorable KARL STEFAN.