Mr. President. yesterday when this amendment was submitted. I objected to it because I felt the Senate committee had given the matter due consideration. and in deleting the amount budgeted for Algerian refugees it had concurred with the House. I wish to point out that we. as a nation. have been at the forefront in assisting refugees throughout the world. Since World War II we have accepted over half a million refugees from Western Europe. Last year the President used a small amount out of the contingency fund to assist the refugees in Algiers. The only reason advanced for that was that the Russians had given a boatload of wheat. and therefore we should counter what the Russians did. Mr. President. this bill provides $70.110.000 to take care of the Cuban refugees who arrive in our country daily. I do not object to our aid to Cuban refugees. Mr. President. but the record will show that no one is sharing this burden with us as we have shared the burden in caring for the European refugees. We have been very liberal in aiding the peoples of Western Europe with their refugee problem. Now we need assistance in regard to Cuba. But we knock on the door and there is no answer. We have to carry the whole load. It strikes me that we ought to call a halt to this kind of thing. As I pointed out previously. if we permit expenditures for this reason it will mean that the Algerian refugees will have a foot in the door of our Treasury. We will be called upon from year to year to put up more and more money to take care of them. As the Senator from Connecticut stated yesterday. the argument against this proposal is that the French ought to do it.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees