The first bill to open up the vast territory of Alaska to refugee settlement–long advocated by Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes–was introduced yesterday by Senator Robert F. Wagner, acting for Senator William H. King (Dem.,Utah) and by Representative Franck R. Havenner (Dem.,Calif.), it was disclosed today.
The King-Havenner bill provides for the chartering of Alaskan development corporations to bring refugees from Europe or transfer needy Americans from the United States to begin operation of new industries and agricultural projects in the northern territory.
Aliens unable to enter the U.S. under the quota would be permitted to enter Alaska under the rules that now govern admission of ministers, students and those in special professional categories. They would not be admitted to American citizenship until they had resided in Alaska continuously for five years and had been reclassified as quota immigrants.
Selection of settlers would be governed by stringent rules. Only those between the ages of 16 and 45 would be admitted and each would have to be certified by the United States Public Health Service as physically and mentally fit.
The bill, which was approved by the Interior Department, was referred in the House to the Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs. Chairman Lex Green (Dem., Fla.) said he would hold hearings on the bill early in May.
Rep. Havenner pointed out the bill provided that the settlers could not engage in occupations that would compete with American industry. He said Alaska, with a 30,000 population that had been stagnant for three decades, was larger and had more natural resources than all of Scandinavia, where 13,000,000 live.
As the bill was introduced, the Alaskan Development Committee, a privately financed organization backing settlement in Alaska, opened headquarters here. The committee is headed by Irwin H. Klaus, president of the Roland German Democratic Club in New York, and includes among its members Harry Warner, motion picture executive; Miss Evelyn Hersey, executive director of the American Committee for Christian Refugees Dr. Frank Bohn, Jacob Baker, former member of a presidential committee which studied European cooperatives, and Irvin Chanin, New York capitalist.
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