Press Release, Statement by the President

1.1216 HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE JULY 7, 1947 266 CONFIDENTIAL: To be held in STRICT CONFIDENCE and no portion, synopsis or intimation to be given out or published until the READING of the President's Message has begun in either the Senate or House of Representatives. Extreme care must therefore be exercised to avoid premature publication, CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: On several occasions I have advocated legislation to enable a substantial number of displaced persons to enter the United States as immigrants. I stated this view in opening the Second Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. In the Message on the State of the Union on January 6, 1947, I said: The fact is that the executive agencies are now doing TRUMADA all that is reasonably possible under the limitation of existing law NARA and established quotas. Congro ional assistance in the form of new legislation is needed. I urge the Congress to turn its attention to this world problem, in an effort to find ways whereby we can fulfill our responsibilities to these thousands of homeless and suffering refugees of all faiths." I express appreciation to the Congress for the attention already being iven to this problem, an appreciation which appears to be generously shared by the public with increasing understanding of the facts and of our responsibilities. Because of the urgency of this subject I should like again to call attention to some of its fundamental aspects. We are dealing here solely with an emergency problem growing out of the war -- the disposition of a specific group of individuals, victims of war, who have come into the hands of our own and the other Western Allied Armies of Occupation in Europe. We should not forget how their destiny came into our hands. The Nazi armies, a,s they swept over Europe, uprooted many millions of men, women, and children from their homes and forced them to work for the German war economy. The Nazis annihilated millions by hardship and persecution. Survivors were taken under the care of the Western Allied Armies, as these Armies liberated them during the conquest of the enemy. Since the end of hostilities, the Armies of Occupation have been able to return to thoir homes some 7,000,000 of these people. But there still remain, in the Western Zonus of Germany and Austria and in Italy, close to a million survivors who are. unwilling by reason of political opinion and fear of persecution to return to the areas where they once had homes. The great majority come from the northern Baltic areas, Poland, the Russian Ukraine and Yugoslavia. The new International Refugee Organization, supported by the contributions of this and other countries, will aid in the care and resettlement of these displaced persons. But, a.s I have pointed out before, the International Refugee Organization is only a service organi- zation. It cannot impose its will on member countries. Continuance of this Organization and our financial support of its work will be required as long as the problem of these homeless people remains unsolved. It is unthinkable that they should be left indofinitely in camps in Europe. We cannot turn them out in Germany into the community of the very people who persecuted them. Moreover, the German economy, so devastated by war and so badly overcrowded with the return of people (OVER)