House Committee Advises “humane Policy” in Evacuating Aliens from Coastal Areas

A humane policy for evacuation of aliens from the West coast which would avoid undue suffering and the possibility of making future potential enemies for the United States was urged upon Congress today in a special report by the select Tolan Committee, appointed to investigate this subject.

While advising that there was no safe course save to take the advice of the military authorities regarding the evacuation of Japanese from the area, the Committee advised a more cautious course in dealing with Germans and Italians. Specifically, it urged all possible care in handling the cases of refugees from German and Italian oppression, declaring: “The tragic hardships and injustices of evacuation are most evident in the present plight of German and Italian anti-Axis refugees on the West coast. Many of these are in the process of becoming citizens, which process has been lengthened in the case of enemy aliens since the war. Although anxious to prove their loyalty and to join in the fight against the Axis, these people are being classed in the same status with the enemy they have fled. England has resolved this anomalous situation through special hearing boards created to grant exemptions from the enemy alien status upon individual examination.”

The Committee urged the establishment of a system of local hearing boards to examine these people and issue certificates of loyalty to Germans and Italians whose loyalty was established beyond a built.

It also recommended that the Department of Justice immediately review the situation regarding enemy aliens who are awaiting their second papers, with a view so expediting their applications; and that upon certification of the local hearing boards, a grace period for completion of their citizenship should be granted.