<--PREV Doc #911  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #913 Document #912; June 3, 1954 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part V: Maintaining "a united defense"; April 1954 to August 1954 Chapter 11: The "men in the Kremlin are not to be trusted"   Memorandum for the Secretary of State: Attached is a memorandum handed to me today by Mr. Fortuna Pope, Publisher of Il Progresso.1 Mr. Pope urged me also to do something in order to make effective the entry of refugees under the Immigration Act that was enacted a year ago.2 He said that it was absolutely indispensable to publish regulations and instructions which would simplify procedures and get the thing on the rails. You will recall that the Act has only a limited time in which to operate, and he told me that he thought that not more than twenty Italians had entered the U.S. under its provisions.3 1 Pope, in addition to publishing the Italian language newspaper in New York, was also President of the American Resettlement Council for Italian Refugees. He had brought from Italian Prime Minister Mario Scelba a message that we have been unable to locate (President's daily appointments). 2 For background on the Refugee Relief Act and the problem of Italian immigration see nos. 328 and 529. 3 The act had permitted the entry of 60,000 Italians over a three-year period, more than ten times the number allowed under existing quotas. By March, however, only six persons had entered the country under the program (New York Times, Mar. 26, 1954). At a July 9 Cabinet meeting State Department officials would attribute the delays to staffing needs and the slowness of foreign countries in working out the details of implementation. Scott McLeod, Administrator of the Refugee Relief Program, would endorse an amendment to the original legislation designed to eliminate some of the obstacles. Expressing his "dislike of having detailed administrative instructions written into law," Eisenhower would ask "where Americans would be now if their forefathers" had faced such restrictions (Cabinet meeting minutes, July 10, 1954, AWF/Cabinet; see also State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. I, General: Economic and Political Matters, pt. 2, pp. 1637-39). In May Ambassador Clare Booth Luce had indicated that the number of visas issued would increase sharply by midsummer, and on June 24, two hundred Italian immigrants would arrive in New York City. On August 31 Eisenhower would sign the bill amending the Refugee Relief Act (New York Times, May 18, June 25, Aug. 13, Sept. 1, Sept. 4, 1954). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Foster Dulles, 3 June 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 912. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/912.cfm <--PREV Doc #911  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #913

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