Mr. President. I was most pleased by the Presidents proclamation of May 19 designating the 12 months beginning July 1 as World Refugee Year in the United States. and also by his sponsorship of the White House conference which is being held today and tomorrow for the purpose of formulating the role which our Government and the American people themselves can play during such year. The refugee problem is so great as to stagger the imagination. It has been said. and only too accurately. that ours is the century of the homeless man. It is estimated that in the past 30 years some 150 million men. women. and children have been driven from their homes. Since the close of World War II alone. 40 million new refugees have been created. Of this number 15 million still remain homeless. Each year another million people become refugees. This week there was brought to my attention an article entitled "Report on Refugees" by the Reverend Albert J. Nevins. who recently completed a 5month trip which took him through refugee centers around the world. . Permit- me to quote from one paragraph of Father Nevins article: The Soviet Union has been accused before the bar of international justice of many crimes. But the greatest crime of all--one that cries to heaven for justiceis the tremendous horde of dispossessed it has driven into the free world.
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Refugees Refugee refugee refugees