Government and the voluntary agencies. It would provide in Government a point of focus to improve communications with them. In any effort to create a continuing. unified administration for our refugee relief and disaster assistance activities. this is a matter of the utmost importance because it is the voluntary agencies which play the major role in implementing in the field our Nations relief programs. Mr. President. it has been argued that programs of refugee relief and disaster assistance should be as far removed as possible from the political and diplomatic conduct of our foreign policy. This view is no longer validif it ever was. Refugee problems have arisen in our relations with the Soviet Union. They have been a constant reminder of the Cuban situation. They have been an element of our relations with Israel and the Arab countries for too long. Although few are aware of it. refugee questions in Hong Kong and Tibet remain between the United States and Communist China. We saw in the case of East Pakistan that assistance to the victims of cyclone disaster and famine could not be isolated from the movement for independence in Bangladesh. Though we might wish it otherwise. the relief of human suffering must be accomplished within the political and diplomatic realities of an interdependent world.
Keywords matched
Refugee refugee