Koch Urges Ball to Use UN Forums to Condemn Soviet’s Emigration Policy

Congressman Edward I. Koch has called upon George Ball, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, to use appropriate UN forums to condemn the Soviet Union for failing to live up to its international commitment to guarantee the right of its citizens to emigrate freely. In a letter to Ball, Koch, who recently visited the Soviet Union, also asked the UN envoy to “urge” the Voice of America to include Yiddish in its radio broadcasts to Russia. Describing the “situation faced daily by Soviet Jews” as “frightful,” Koch also requested that Ball use his “influence with the President and the Secretary of State to obtain their support” for a bill now pending in Congress “which would provide 30,000 non-quota refugee visas in the event the Soviet Union opened its doors and permitted them to leave.”