Alaska Hearing Scheduled

A House Immigration Committee hearing on the Dickstein bill to open Alaska to colonization by European refugees has been tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday, it was learned today. Officials of the Interior Department, under whose jurisdiction the administration of the Alaskan territory rests, are expected to be the first witnesses.

Departmental officials were silent today on what stand the Interior Department would take on the measure. However, it was recalled that at a press conference earlier this year Secretary Harold Ickes said in no uncertain terms he was still infavor of the colonization proposal and that he hoped to see legislative authorization for it this session. Interior officials admitted that conferences had been held between Ickes and his top aides over the past two weeks looking toward presentation of the Department’s views on the colonization proposal to Congress.

Meanwhile, former Senator William King of Utah, who has been seeking to have the measure reintroduced in the Senate, said today he had urged Ickes and Nathan Margold, Interior Department solicitor, to draft a bill which would eliminate “all sincere criticism of the King-Havenner bill without destroying the basic purpose of the colonization proposal.”

Senator King said most of the criticism levelled at the proposal during the last session appeared to be inspired by the lack of restriction on subsequent entry of the colonizers into the United States proper.

The Dickstein bill as introduced provides that colonizers be required to remain in Alaska for a minimum of five years. The measure sets up a special colonization quota for Alaska made up of all the unused admissions under the immigration laws over the past six years. State Department officials say that unused quotas for that period total 687,506.