Speech #810210053

I refer particularly to the important provisions to define a displaced person. to clarify the status of expellees and to help them. to eliminate discriminatory features. to continue the present division of administrative responsibility among the Displaced Persons Commissibn. the Consular Service. and the Foreign Service. Among ameniments I think would be desirable would be one to authorize suitable grants to provide transportation for displaced persons from the ports of debarkation to the places of resettlement. One phase of this entire legislation over which I have been much concerned relates to the grave problems presented by socalled expellees. or refugees. from various countries behind the iron curtain who have been uprooted because they happen to have German blood. The committee amendments would appear to improve the status of expellees so far as their entrance into this country as displaced persons is concerned. but I have come to the conclusion that the substitute measure deals more realistically and effectively with this matter by. first. assuring admission of 54.744 expellees. second. making provision for their ocean transportation. third. providing a priority for German and Austrian orphan children. and. fourth. calling for an international conference to deal with this vital problem on a broader basis than is possible in this legislation. To place the expellees in the same category as displaced persons does not solve either the problem of the expellees or of the displaced persons. Restoring the definition of a displaced person to that providtd by the International Refugee Organization. as the substitute bill would do. is the better procedure and. in fact. more consistent with our obligations to the agency which we have so generously supported and whose activities are to terminate in July. The minority views on this bill have very clearly stated that those who have made a study of the expellee problem are agreed that the committees proposal to define expellees on the same basis as displaced persons is not the remedy to this urgent problem. The substitute bill is the only one giving realistic help to the expellees. but it. likewise. is not the solution to the problem. Whatever final details the pending displacedpersons bill may contain. it is certain that we must be prepared to deal sympathetically and effectively with refugees of German blood. who make up the bulk of the huge expellee group. We must also recognize how serious is the economic and social impact of these millions of expellees who have been forced into western Germany. If we are to accomplish and achieve permanent world peace. we must find a way to settle this disturbing factor. We may even find that the expellee and refugee problem. now so acute in western Germany and to a lesser extent in Austria and Italy. will have its counterpart in other areas. No international agency has undertaken to deal with this problem. and it is obvious that the burden of its solution cannot be. and ought not to be. borne entirely by the American people. Our own careful study of this situation is desirable. but the sponsors of the substitute measure before us suggest that the sblution be placed on a much broader. yes. a worldwide basis. as being likely to be more effective for the expellees. and. as the minority report states. "less costly for the American taxpayer." Consequently. representatives of our Government would be authorized under the substitute bill to participate in a conference between affected nations for the purpose of studying and making recommendations providing for a satisfactory solution of the entire expellee problem.