Letter from John Gibson to Richard Neustadt

DISPLACED PERSONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON 25, D. C. IN REPLY, REFER TO: March 21, 1952 DPC- 300 Mr. Richard E. Neustadt Special Assistant in the White House The White House Washington 25, D. C. Dear Mr. Neustadt: In connection with the proposed Presidential Message on Overpopulation and Refugees from Communism, it is the Displaced Persons Commission's respectful judgment that the comments of the Department of State of March 14th should be rejected so far as the draft message of March 20th is concerned. The Department's memorandum raises two issues, both of which involve questions of legislative strategy. There is no substantive difference of opinion on the proposal in the Message for the admission of 300,000 immigrants. The only question is: "How?" The Department proposes that it be accomplished through the pooling of unused quotas. Inclusion, in any form, of the concept of pooled quotas injects this special program into the midst of the controversial general immigration fight in which pooling of quotas has been a critical issue for many years. In principle, there is much that is attractive about a special emergency pooling of quotas. However, it is important to note that the House will probably debate the Walter general immigration bill next week. The mere proposal by the President for pooled quotas will make it likely that this special legislation may be tacked on as an amendment to one of the general immigration bills and thus enmesh the special program in the debate on general immigration bills. If the Department's proposals were to be attempted through amendments to the general immigration laws, they would change the proposed Presidential program from a special emergency proposal on its own merits to a minor adjunct of a very complicated 300 page bill attempting to rewrite our entire immigration and naturalization law. AND 42 may