Speech #850276872

The Attorney General would have to make certain findings. However. he indicated the State Department would consider applications by Chinese journalists but that none had ever been made. In the letter quoted above the State Department informs me that such an application would "be. considered individually on its own merits." This seems to contradict the report last August that no visas would be issued to Chinese Communist newsmen. The letter says: The question of whether or not a visa would be granted in such a case is a hypothetical one as no Chinese Communist newsman has applied for one. We do not recognize this nation of more than half a billion people. Our communications with Red China are poor. I hope. however. that somehow the message will get to the Peiping government to encourage its newsmen to apply at once for visas to enter the United States. They may. in my opinion. be granted and this would mean that our 26 newsmen could enter Red China. The McCarranWalter Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 provides that the Secretary of State may recommend and the Attorney General may determine that a Communist otherwise excludable by law may enter the United States. If the Secretary of State intended those 26 passports to mean anything. he is obligated to recommend favorably the granting of visas to bona fide Red Chinese newspapermen who make application. Of course none should be admitted if there is any reason to believe that he is coming to engage in subversive activities or espionage. And the law so provides.