All refugees who wish to return to their homes after the war must be allowed to do so, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia said today, addressing 2,500 persons attending the convention of the Hias Council of Organizations meeting at the Hotel Diplomat. No nation in Europe, the Mayor said, should be allowed to refuse readmitted to any of its former nationals.
Discussing United States immigration policy, Mr. La Guardia said that he was “not particularly proud” of the fact that we have admitted recently only 1,000 refugees, and compelled them to reside in a designated place. However, the Fort Ontario project was the only feasible one, he continued, because legislation liberalizing the immigration regulations would not have a chance of being approved by Congress at the present time.
Abraham Herman, president of Hias, told the convention that “baffling problems of a psychological nature, in addition to the other problems created by the Nazis” will have to be faced in any program of postwar reconstruction. The Society’s representatives overseas, he said, report that Nazism has left a seemingly ineradicable impression on those fortunate enough to have survived.
Mr. Herman pleaded for a new attitude toward immigration. “I am not speaking here of any letting down of the bars as far as the immigrant is concerned. I am appealing rather for a more intelligent approach to immigration, in line for instance with the report of the recent Internation Labor Conference in Philadelphia which pointed out that “migratory movements may play an important part in the development of a dynamic country.”
Isaac L. Asofsky, executive director of Hias, told the convention that one of the most important tasks now facing Hias was the reunion of families which have become scattered through the war and the Nazi occupation. The society, he said, has introduced registries in all leading cities where those seeking missing relatives may list the names of the persons sought. In the New York office, the “Location Service” has now listed over 25,000 persons seeking missing relatives in Europe.
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