Speech #830100049

The tremendous amount of potential goodwill toward the United States inherent in the program would thus be damaged in these countries. In addition. the administration of the program would give rise to innumerable difficulties of selection which would have negative political repercussions both for us and the foreign governments involved. Since for countries like Italy and the Netherlands. the allrefugee approach is an artificial one. it may well come to pass that under this approach because of the general eligibility requirements and the requirements established under the definition of refugee. the numbers actually admitted to the United States from these countries will be considerably less than the numbers allotted to them under the program. With the tremendous population pressures in these countries it will appear strange indeed on one hand to see us provide for substantial numbers of persons to be admitted to America. and at the same time watch us set up artificial limitations which in fact prevent these numbers frem actually being admitted to the United States. Other countries. Mr. President. particularly Canada. Australia and several Latin American countries. have in recent years been accepting large numbers of emigrants from Europe. It is our hope that with the enactment of this emergency legislation the United States will be in a position to offer effective leadership in encouraging them to increase their levels of immigration on the broadest basis from among the NATO countries suffering most from population pressures. If the program. however. is restricted to an allrefugee one. the effectiveness of our leadership will be reduced. Mr. President. the Watkins bill would be a better bill if its definitions of expellees and refugees were motivated more in a spirit of humanitarianism and objective selfinterest as a weapon of our own foreign policy. It is not always possible to get everything that we may want. and no one who has served in the Senate of the United States for as long as 5 years. as I have. can gainsay that fact. Thus.