The Wilmington morning star., 1944-07-29
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK,-President Roosevelt recently
announced to Congress as an accomplished
fact his decision that approximately 1000
continental European refugees who have
reached southern Italy, "predominantly'' wom-
en- and children, would be brought here and
given asylum in vacant army camp in the
east. They would be returned to their home
lands upon the termination OF the war"
Any objections will be met instantly with
tragic story Of the persecution of innocent
children who cannot even understand why they
and their humble parents are so horribly mis-
treated. Thus, 1t would seem as though only
children and their inoffensfve and helpless
mothers would be admitted, although Mr.
Roosevelt's qualifying word "predominantly'
would leave room for number of men, as
we'll
In November, 1912, Mr.. Roosevelt proposed
that our immigration laws be suspended en-
tirely for the duration of the war This re-
quest was denied by the Ways and Means
committee of the House of Representatives
Francis Biddle, the attorney general, urged
the committee to agree on the ground that
otherwise we would have to pay ourselves
head tax OF So on every prisoner of war
brought here for detention. 1t was even sug-
gested that military and diplomatic dignitar-
les OF our allies would be subjected to unnec-
essary and embarrassing formalities in clear
Il can assure you," Mr.. Biddle told the
committee, that the President had no nten-
ton of exercising the powers so as to remove
immigration barriers for any purpose not con-
nected with the war effort There is no
record of the exclusion of any prisoner of
war for lack of the So head tax and if that
tax is actually collected, as seems improba-
BILE, it represents no more than an entry in
the books, crediting the Department of JUS
tice, which now has charge of immigration,
with so many thousand times So and charging
it to overhead Neither has there been any
report of the detention at Ellis Island of any
accredited agent of any of our allies arrived
to discuss Lend-Lease or any other subject
So Mr.. Biddles concern on these two points
seems to have been entirely unnecessary.
Although the committee did reject the Pres
idents proposal, his recent announcement re-
garding the 1000 refugees, delivered in the
form of a message, cited no legal authority
for his action Instead after long and SEN
timental preamble, Mr.. Roosevelt just said
that II determined that h S government
should intensity its efforts to combat the Nazi
terror and that accordingly l established
the war refugee board, composed of the Sec
retaries of State Treasury and War; to trans
late "this governments humanitarian policy
into prompt action
Therefore" he continued II wish to report
to Won TODAY a step which I have just taken'
and so forth, announcing the importation
of the 1000 refugees. There was no intimation
that 1000 would be all. With equal authority,
wherever derived, Mr.. Roosevelt may admit
500, 900 who need not be ''predominantly" wom-
en- and children and who if 'predominantly'
women might be communists or fascistsN For
it seems to be forgotten, although it remains
fact, that many of those in Europe who
later were prosecuted for various reasons
found fascism and Hitlerism very agreeable
at the beginning. Mussolini and Hitler were
fine as long as they didn't persecute them.
And it should be remembered that the COM
munists OF Germany, who now are included
among the pitiable victims OF Hitler's bar
barity. had been fairly barbarous themselves
and SO greatly admired Hitler that all six
million Of thenn under instructions from Mos
j cow, voted for Hitler in his final rise to power