Speech #840204966

Speaker. I wish to congratulate the House conferees on their splendid work on this legislation and particularly on their success in including in the conference report an amendment submitted in the other body by the junior Senator from Florida . with an amendment which. If enacted Into law. would do more to relieve pressure on our immigration quotas than anything we can conscientiously do unless we want to let down the bars and open the floodgates. As many of my colleagues in the House know. I have had some responsibility in erecting in Brussels. Belgium. in November 1951. the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration. Later this year. probably before the end of September. this organization would look with pride on its achievements when the 500.000th migrant will be moved from Europe to overseas lands where new opportunities permit to make a better livelihood and to bring up the migrants children away from the warravaged. overcrowded countries in Europe. It is good to see that ICEM which had 16 nations as its members at the start. has grown into an efficiently functioning organization with a membership of 26 independent nations. We keep the committee outside of the United Nations in order to prevent any Soviet interference and we excluded from it any nation under Communist domination. Under the amendment now before the House. it will be possible to undertake a determined and sustained effort designed to explore and open up new vast areas of South America for the benefit of European migrants who should be resettled in larger numbers on farmlands and not in congested industrial areas. To bring the unskilled surplus European manpower and families to unsettled lands where they could engage in agriculture. would serve a double purpose. In addition to providing the migrants with new opportunities. it will increase food production for the everhungry and now increasingly hungrier world. The present world immigrationemigration picture is not healthy. and it is fraught with dangers. While skilled migrantsfrom college professors and atomic scientists to automobile mechanics and weldersrepresent coveted immigration material. the unskilled or semiskilled farmers and agricultural laborers are in vain looking for resettlement opportunities. The pressure on United States immigration quotas is to a great extent attributable to the fact that the vast unsettled territories of Central and South Africa remain inaccessible for people who intend to engage in agricultural pursuits. At the same time. several countries of Central and South America are in vain seeking to obtain outside assistance in their effort to provide employment for native unskilled laborers. mostly Indians. In connection with current efforts to modernize the economy of undeveloped and underdeveloped countries of Central and South America. it is most desirable to undertake a determined and sustained action designed to open up new areas for the benefit of European. Oriental. and native migrants. who should be resettled in large numbers on farmlands and not in congested areas of industrialized countries. In Asiaovercrowded Okinawa. Japan. and the Philippinesand in EuropeItaly. the Netherlands. Germany. Spain. Portugal. and Greeceface the urgent need of securing sustained annual emigration of large numbers of farmers and agricultural workers who cannot be absorbed in the present economies because of the lack of land available for agriculture. The full value of United States economic assistance to these countries in recent years cannot be achieved unless an effort is made to assist these governments to place their agricultural emigrants abroad. The success of the present efforts of these governments to develop internal economic and political stability depend in large measure on the volume of annual emigration that can be achieved. In the immigrantreceiving countries. particularly in the Argentine. Brazil. Chile. Colombia. Costa Rica. and Venezuela. the increase of food production is an important factor in economic development. Both the emigrantsending and the immigrantreceiving countries. in their own respective interests. are seeking to resettle the surplus agricultural workers on the land available in Latin America. Such resettlement calls for skillful planning and adequate promotional capital. The emigration countries in Europe are prepared to advance onethird of the required capital and the immigration countries in Latin America the second third in the form of land. local financial farm credits. and limited public facilities and services. The final third in initial capital requirements must be sought from external sources in the form of bank loans for the purchase of equipment and other expenditures in foreign currencies or of limited grant expendable capital which may provide the basis for short or long term external credits. Experience in land settlement to date In Latin America indicates that the planning and management of specific land settlement projects open to both European and native settlers may best be placed in semipublic and private corporate bodies. chartered under the laws of the countries in which settlement takes place. in which the different sources of capital and credit are appropriately and proportionately represented.