Asylum Quotes
He was echoing proposals that he made in the Delhi Emergency Committee that had been called to cope with the butchery and murder when the Hindus and Sikhs were trying to leave the areas that were to be part of Pakistan under the Partition and the retaliations against the Delhi Muslims who were trying to flee to the new Pakistan. Unfortunately, the Muslim leadership did not want such a truce as while the land had been partitioned, Indian Money, military equipment, and other resources were yet to be divided and the Muslim leaders who had been so successful playing the violence card to gain and independent Pakistan, did not want to give up that option in the remainder of the division of India. Also, it was not at all clear that the Muslim political leaders could even then control the mobs who they had already whipped up to violence.
At the time immigrants had to live in America 14 years before they were eligible for citizenship. The President urged a reduction in that waiting period which is what was done. This was one of the earliest statements of America as a haven to the oppressed of the world. Note that despite occasional squabbles over land use and theft, the general assessment of the President and the public was that the Indians although not as civilized had welcomed the whites with “hospitality.” The next years would produce the conflict for land and begin the massive usurpation of Indian land that would characterize American policy and practice until the latter half of the 20th century, buy which time there was little Indian land left.
Trotsky had been assassinated by Stalin’s agents in Mexico. Trotsky supporters in the U. S. wanted to bring his body here for burial. President Roosevelt, acting upon the advice of Secretary Cordell Hull, refused permission as it would alienate Stalinist Russia, the then bastion of defense against Hitler and the Nazis. There is no better example of the old adage {592416}.
