Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-01-03
Haven of Refuqe'

Vice President Nixon'S excellent re-
port on the Hungarian refugees should do
much to persuade Congress to liberalize
our immigration law in behalf of these
Sorely tried people and other victims Of
Soviet Communist tyranny. Pending
such action, President Eisenhower, in
keeping with one of MIR. NixonS recon-
mendationS, has announced that there
will be no ceiling on the number to be
admitted to the United States on parole"
This means, in effect, that the total to be
let in may be appreciably greater than
the previously set figure of 800
AS Mr.. Nixon has emphasized, our
country can readily offer asylum on an
increased scale, and it can do so without
taking any significant risk" of admitting
SubverSive agents or spies. Actually, in
the words of his report, The quality Of
the people who fled Hungary is of the
highest order. For the most part they
were in the forefront of the fight fol
freedom and fled only when the choice
was death or deportation :. or tempo
rary flight to a foreign land i. The
large majority are young people-Stu-
dents, technicianS, craftsmen and pro-
fesSional people" And most of these have
voiced desire to return to their native
country lin the event of change of
government which would make it safe for
them to do So
But this is something that will not
happen as long as the Kremlin continues
to impose its imperial deSpotism on Hun
gary and refuses to comply with the
United Nations resolution calling for the
withdrawal of Soviet troops. So more
must be done than has been done thus
far to deal effectively with the eScapee
problem. Up to now approximately 1885,
900 men, women and children have fled
across the border into Austria, and an
additional average of about 800 are
coming over each day. Some $4,000 of
the total to date have been reSettled in
countries other than Austria, and about
$4,000 of these have been admitted to
the United States. Accordingly, since the
AuStrianS can aSSimilate only around
10000 of the remainder and those still
fleeing, our own country and the free
world in general must take substantially
more refugees than they have agreed to
take up to this time"
1t is for this reason that Mr. Nixon
has recommended the action taken by
the President And by the same token,
with emphasis on fleXbility. he has urged
among other things-that Congress
amend the immigration and Nationality
Act to end the laws current rigidity, au-
thorize additional admissions, and regu
larize the status of refugees who come in
under parole" provisions. At present
such refugees have no real standing as
immigrants, but if their position were
regularized, they presumably would be
classified as temporary or permanent
aliens or as candidates for naturalization.
Congress ought to act with all rea-
Sonable speed on this matter, and it
ought to act favorably. AS Mr.. Nixon has
said, the project fits in with ''our tradi-
tional national mission of providing
maven of refuge for victims of oppreS-
Sion," and I'VE can easily and protitably
assimilate into our economy" consider
ably larger number of the Hungarian ref
ugeeS than have been admitted so far.
Surely, we owe them at least this much,
and so do other free nations, for what
they and their courageous country have
done in fighting for liberty against a
tyranny that threatens us all.