Speech #850000177

But this little nation. this fragment of the free world. taking the harried and the driven of Hungary to her bosom. stopped the Soviet Union dead in its tracks. What it did was. of course. to arouse the indignation of mankind to a valor of its own by the example of Austria toward the terrordriven masses she was taking inside her borders. Perhaps. to some extent. even our own country was itself swept up into the stream of the effort for helping Hungarian refugees by the stout example Austria set for mankind. Here is a nation of a mere 7 million. At the very moment that we were talking of taking in some handful of thousands from bloodied Hungary. Austria opened herself wide to 120.000 of themcoming over in droves under threat of torture and murder. Yet Austria had already within its gates no less than 180.000 refugees of World War II and the cold war. Now that we have. on the official level. grasped in all its fullness the enormity of this tragic situation. I ask the House of Representatives of the United States to offer a proud and respectful salute to the little nation of Austria.