Members of the House today expressed dissatisfaction at the fact that not a single member of the House Immigration Committee has been included in the American delegation to the Bermuda Conference on refugees which opens on Monday in Hemilton to discuss immigration and other matters concerning refugee aid.
A resolution introduced by Representative Noah M. Mason of Illinois, ranking Republican of the House Immigration Committee, would empower Speaker Sam Rayburn, Texas Democrat, to appoint three members of the Committee as an official delegation of the House to report on the Bermuda Conference in addition to the three delegates already named by the State Department. Representative Mason termed his resolution “an impersonal protest against the fact that no member of the House Immigration Committee that will have to pass on legislation concerning refugees was invited to the Conference.”
Supporting this resolution is Congressman Samuel Dickstein of New York, who is the chairman of the House Immigration Committee. In a statement today he insisted that members of his group sit in on the conference at Bermuda. He also criticized the statements that no more refugees could be admitted to this country under present immigration laws. He emphasized that 500,000 visas are available under unused quotas of the past five years.
“The world is afire, and the United States must do their share,” he declared. He appealed to the American people to admit more refugees from Europe and criticized a recent statement made by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who said that Britain has admitted all the refugees it can. “Palestine could absorb between 300,000 and 400,000 more,” Dickstein stated.
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