The House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization today voted temporarily to suspend action on Representative Samuel Dickstein’s bill under whose terms Americans who participated in the Saar plebiscite would forfeit their citizenship rights. After a public hearing on the measure, it was decided to postpone disposition until the President’s Committee on Nationality Laws makes its report.
The hearing brought to light bitter opposition to the proposal on the ground that the Treaty of Versailles permitted these persons to vote.
Representative Everett Dirksen of Illinois described the bill in scornful language.
“This bill,” he said, “is silly. It should be thrown out of the window. It is a lot of balderdash and phooey.”
He added that anyone who was entitled to vote and failed to make the trip was foolish.
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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.