Statement by the President for the White House Conference on Refugees.

[ Read by Gerald D. Morgan, The Deputy Assistant to the President ]

IT IS a pleasure to welcome you to the White House Conference on Refugees. At the same time, I want you to know how gratified I am that so many of you have been able to arrange your busy schedules to participate in this meeting. From it, I am sure, will come a clear concept of our country's role in the World Refugee Year.

To such a group as this it is not necessary to describe the daily problems of the millions of dispossessed people around the world whom we call "refugees". You are well aware of their problems. In fact, you and the organizations which many of you represent deserve the highest praise for what you have done and what you are now doing to help these refugees and to keep alive their hope for a better way of life.

The response of the American people to the needs of the homeless and the outcast has always been generous and timely. Since the early days of Nazism, and even more particularly since the end of World War II, Americans have opened their hearts and land to thousands of such people.

With charity and understanding, the American people have welcomed these refugees to our shores. Here, immigrants have traditionally exchanged their despair for confidence, and their fears for security. Today they are citizens; many of them own their own homes; some of them own their own businesses; their children are in our schools; and they, as families, are making a full contribution to our national life.

Much has been done, but the refugee problem remains--acute and chronic--and it will remain so long as the world suffers from political unrest and aggression. And as long as there are refugees, we cannot ignore them.

That is why the United Nations, with the close and immediate support of the United States, sponsored the World Refugee Year. This is a year to focus the concern and the ingenuity--and the generosity--of the world on the continuing problem of refugees. Perhaps, with such a mobilization of effort--as in the International Geophysical Year--but for the advancement of humanity rather than science, it may even be possible to resolve some particular refugee problem. This would be a great step forward, and we can all hope for such progress. In any event we must further our efforts to create lasting international understanding of and concern for this problem, which I fear will be with us for a long, long time.

Now, I have asked you to come together to share with the government your experience, your judgment and your insight regarding the things which should be done and how best to do them. The task of refugee care is not one for governments alone. It can be done only with broad and devoted citizen support. As leaders in your own communities, as officers of private groups, I know you will want to assume the greatest possible personal responsibility in this humanitarian cause.

Working together, I am confident this can, and will be, a useful and promising meeting.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER