Statement by Commissioner of Education Earl McGrath on Iranian University Day

STATEMENT* It is a great privilege for me to be able to speak to you on the occasion of Irunian University Day. First of all, 1 should like to express my appreciation for the outstanding work aone by the University of Teneran, since the laying of its cornerstone on February. 4, 1935. I should also like to congratulate the faculty for the distinguished results which they have obtained in such a short time. The University of Teheran became reorganized as an illustrious center for the preservation and dissemination of knowledge. Through the University of Teheran, the culture and philosophy of Iran, can be shared with the rest of the world. The teachings of your poets and philosophers - men like Firdosi, Hafiz, Saadi, and Omar Khayyam, can be made available to world culture. Today, there are some 800 Iranion students, including many graduates of Teheran University, studying in colleges and universities in the United States. The American people, particularly those at our colleges and universities, are learning a great deal about Iran and her rich heritage from. these students. We are fully aware of some of the difficulties which many foreign students face in a strange land. In cooberation with the U. S. Department of State, the Office of Education, of the Federal Security Agency, school officials, community and townspeople are making sincere efforts to combat *By Earl James McGrath, J. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C. over Voice of America broadcast, February 1, 1950, on the occasion of Iranian University Day.