I know that mostfavorednation status and the U.S.-U.S.S.R. trade agreement would better enable the U.S.S.R. to get through the hard times that lie ahead for that country. Yet I cannot support the Presidents request to approve this trade status at this time. The President made a personal commitment to not seek approval of this trade agreement until the Soviet Union had Implemented a free emigration law. Last spring. the Soviet Union passed an emigration law. but it was not satisfactory. It left open the door for too many of the practices used by the old regime to deny emigration to Soviet Jews: the poor relatives exception. the claim of property obligations. the state secrets exception. and the exclusion of draftage emigrants. I Issued a report analyzing this law. and wrote to the State Department urging our Government to continue to press the Soviet Union on this matter. Although I received assurances that it would. little progress has been made. and emigrants have experienced many difficulties in seeking to leave under the new law. This occurs In an Increasingly hostile atmosphere for Soviet Jews. AntiSemitic incidents are again on the upswing. particularly in the southern regions of the U.S.S.R.
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emigration emigrants