Mr. Speaker. as a cosponsor of House Joint Resolution 373. the SchroederSmith resolution calling on the President to instruct the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission to raise the issue of religious freedom and emigration for Jews and others in the Soviet Union. I want to commend the chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations. as well as the chairman of the full committee. for acting expeditiously on this resolution so that it might be brought to the House floor before the U.N. Human Rights Commission completes its work next week. Mr. Speaker. it is a wellknown tragedy to the Members of this body that the Soviet Union has drastically cut back the number of Soviet Jews it is permitting to emigrate. On January 26. 1982. the New York Times reminded us of the historical tradition of Soviet authority in an editorial entitled "Still The Prisonhouse of Peoples." It stated: Permitting an orderly emigration and thus adhering to the Helsinki Final Act would not be just a favor to the United States. It would counter one of the oldest reproaches leveled at Russia. Even in czarist times. it grimly nicknamed "The Prisonhouse of Peoples" because so many ethnic minorities were sealed inside.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration