The Senate today adopted an amendment to the Wiley-Revercomb immigration bill which would make fewer visas available for displaced Jews. It also voted down a number of amendments which would have liberalized the proposed legislation to admit 200,000 DP’s within a two-year period.
The last development came late this afternoon when, by a voice vote, the legislators accepted an amendment by Sen. C. Wayland Brooks of Illinois to give priority in admissions to persons who bore arms for the Allied cause in the last war and who refuse to return to their native countries. Since most of the displaced Jews were either in concentration camps or in areas from which they could not escape to fight with the Allies very few of them will be eligible under this amendment.
Brooks admitted that this amendment is aimed at clearing a way into this country for Poles and Czechs who refuse to return to their homelands. Illinois has a large Polish population. Passage of the amendment followed an appeal by Majority Leader Kenneth Wherry the Senators to give the proposal “the utmost consideration” and to approve it.
Earlier, Chapman Revercomb of West Virginia led a successful fight against an amendment to set April 21, 1947 as the deadline for residence in a DP camp in order to be eligible for admission. As the bill now stands DP’s who arrived in camps after December 22, 1945 are ineligible. Revercomb threatened that passage of the amendment would “destroy” the entire bill.
The second amendment killed was one which would have given an American Displaced Persons Commission, contemplated by the bill, power to select, transport and resettle displaced orphaned children. Also turned down was an amendment by Sea. Irving Ives of New York which would have permitted the admission outside the 200,000 figure of DP orphans under 14 adopted by American citizens.
(As the Bulletin sent to press the Senate had more than 15 amendments to consider. It was expected that the Senate would remain in session until last tonight to vote on the amendments and the bill.)
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
