So it seems to me that under no circumstances should we overlook giving an opportunity to a great number of these fine soldiers to come to this country to make their homes. But in this provision. we must guard against language which would make it extremely difficult for many of these people to reach our shores. In the committee bill it is provided that before any one of these 18.000 visas is issued. the applicant must prove that he has not been "firmly resettled." It must be remembered that since the war. these men have continuously resided in the British Isles. and it would be very difficult for many of them to show they were not resettled. In making visas available to them. we must not create administrative difficulties that will prevent many of these 18.000 authorized visas from ever being used. In planning a general revision of our displacedpersons program. certain principles that we have always held high should be clearly remembered. In the first place. we need a law that will be fair. There is no room in this humanitarian movement for discrimination in any way. There has been criticism of the present law because the cutoff date of December 22. 1945. barred from the benefits of this law many refugees from southern Europe. This was interpreted by many as a discrimination. against certain nationalities and religious groups. The provisions of the bills now being considered move the cutoff date forward to January 1. 1949. eliminating this discrimination.
Keywords matched
visas refugees