With conferences over the last fortnight bringing about a meeting of minds on the part of practically all officials interested in the proposal to colonize Alaska with European refugees, the machinery behind the Dickstein colonization bill will get under way at a House Immigration Committee hearing tomorrow.
Representatives of the Interior Department will be heard in support of the general idea embodied in the bill, but with certain changes. Immediately after their appearance, Committee Chairman Samuel Dickstein (Dem., N.Y.) will appoint a subcommittee to meet with Interior Department officials to make adjustments tentatively agreed to in a previous conference on the measure.
The general tenor of these changes was settled after discussions between Secretary Ickes, ex-Senator William King of Utah, officials of the Interior Department’s Division of Territories, Dickstein and other interested persons. They include specific designation of the areas to be colonized and the manner of colonization, establishment of investigative machinery to preclude the admission of actual or potential fifth columnists and the tabulation of the number of admissions to be made annually and from which immigrants they are to be drawn.
Sole remaining objector among those consulted in the conferences is Anthony J. Dimond, Alaskan delegate in the House, who said today he would bitterly oppose the proposal as long as the provision confining the colonists to Alaska for a period of five years was contained in the Dickstein bill. He said this restriction “would turn the territory into a gigantic concentration camp.”
Dickstein said he was in complete agreement with the “general idea” of revising his bill in the direction of more specific statement of ways and means by which the colonization would be carried out. “I drafted the bill with the idea of national defense in mind and my principal aim was to provide a working basis for some legislation,” he said.
Dickstein described Dimond’s opposition to the measure as “short-sighted,” declaring the territory could not hope to realize its cherished dream of statehood until it had a large population of loyal, industrious citizens, ” such as this bill would provide.”
He also dismissed fears concerning the effect on Alaskan economy of the impact of a large population increase. “No steps will be taken to move people into Alaska under this bill until every provision is made for their arrival, including Government-financed housing projects, for which I will introduce a bill shortly,” he said. As originally drafted, the Dickstein measure authorized the colonization of Alaska by refugees up to the total of unused immigration quotas over the past six years.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
