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Stettinius Gratified over Mexico’s Plan to Establish “free Port” for Refugees

August 11, 1944
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Acting Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr. today declared that he was very gratified to read the announcement by the Mexican Government of plans to set up a Refugee Shelter in Mexico patterned after that established by the U. S. Government at Fort Ontario.

The Acting Secretary made this statement at a press conference adding that he hoped that other countries would follow the example of the United States. “I would welcome such a move by all freedom-loving countries of the world,” he said.

Sen. Robert Reynolds, leader of the American Nationalists, today began a campaign to prevent the U. S. from setting up additional “free ports” such as the emergency shelter opened for 982 European refugees last Saturday at Fort Ontario in Oswego.

In a widely circulated letter written on official Senate stationery, Reynolds described the settling of the refugees as “merely the entering wedge,” and added, “Once the foot is in the door, I am of the opinion that thousands of refugees will follow and once they are here they will never be returned,” Reynolds urged his followers to deluge their Congressmen with letters demanding the immediate end of “all immigration now.”

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