Speech #840204192

And as for his views on communism. Mr. van Heuven Goedhart considers himself in the same category as J. Robert Oppenheimerwhose security clearance was withdrawn by the Government of the United States after his intimate. extensive. and dangerous connections with Communists and communism had been established. "I will appreciate being advised whether you consider that this latest statement by Mr. van Heuven Goedhart affects in any way his qualifications to serve as the United Nations official in charge of its program for refugees from Communist oppression and tyranny." (Full text of Senator EASTLANDs letter is attached as exhibit 5.) Only with Dr. van Heuven Goedharts introduction to The Great Conspiracy Against Russia and his statement of June 5. 1956. in mind can we now understand why Dr. van Heuven Goedhart. as U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees. participated in the Sovietsponsored repatriation of refugees from countries behind the Iron Curtain. In his speech before committee 3 of the 10th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York on October 4. 1955. Dr. van Heuven Goedhart said: "There are. as the members of this committee know very well. three different possible solutions. [Of the refugee problem.] One is the decision to go back. the repatriation. One is the resettlement in another country and three is the integration into the economy of the country where the refugee has found asylum. The first solutionrepatriationcan nearly always be easily realized. * * * Looking back for 1 more second upon those 10 years (194555). Mr. President. I would like to note that millions and millions more refugees have been repatriated in the course of those 10 years than ever have been resettled or integrated." The U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Dr. G. J. van Heuven Goedhart. is the first official who ever described repatriation of refugees from Communist tyranny as a solution. even as the number one solution to the refugee problem. His reference to the millions and millions of refugees who have been repatriated since 1945. is especially repulsive since a very large fraction of those millions of refugees repatriated since 1945 were forcibly repatriated in violation of the Geneva Convention as well as of the American tradition of ready asylum for political exiles. Dr. van Heuven Goedharts participation in the repatriation of refugees to Iron Curtain countriesby sending his representatives together with the Soviet repatriation missions into the diplacedperson campsIs contradictory to the American policy of preventing redefection of refugees from Communist countries. How can we expect those refugees to have any confidence in the U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees if he is pioneering redefection and if he has just reaffirmed his proCommunist and especially proStalinist views as late as June 5. 1956? We cannot expect any confidence in him. I wish to make it abundantly clear that I do not desire to deprive refugees of any assistance which they might receive if Congress were to appropriate funds to UNREP to be administered by the U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Dr. van Heuven Goedhart. However. until a more suitable High Commissioner for Refugees succeeds to the post presently held by Dr. van Heuven Goedhart. I believe that it is defeating the purposes of the Congress and of the American public to appropriate funds to be administered by him. Until there is a change in the personality presently holding the post of U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees I urge that the $2.3 million requested as the United States contribution for the program administered by the U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees be appropriated to the Department of State (Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs) or to the President of the United States to be used to assist the American voluntary agencies which work abroad with refugees to overcome the Soviet redefection campaign. By so doing. the Congress will fulfill the hopes of the refugees and will serve the best interests of the United States. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works at St. Louis Did the Impossible in Nations Atomic Energy Program