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Mr. VORYS. One of the reasons for this action is because UNRRA finishes up July 30.

Mr. HILLDRING. UNRRA under its authorization must wind up its business on the 30th of June. The Inter-Governmental Committee which now handles the resettlement of the displaced persons in this interim period is also terminating its business at the end of June.

That will leave a hiatus in two important fields, Mr. Chairman, because the UNRRA today is managing the camps. It furnishes the personnel that operates the displaced persons camps, under the general supervision of the armies in the respective zones, and the InterGovernmental Committee on Refugees today is the only agency that is resettling these people.

There is no other agency to do it except the Inter-Governmental Committee, and it will not be available after June 30, so we will have two great voids on the 1st of July, Mr. Chairman; one, caring for these. people in their camps, and two, resettling as many as possible. It seems to us a great tragedy if the two ships that are now plying the oceans, resettling these people in the beginning of this great movement which constitutes the only solution of the DP problem, should have to stop operating on the 1st of July, because there is not any agency available and in existence on the 1st of July to continue the resettlement of these people.

This resettlement possibility has increased considerably since I appeared before the Senate. By the 1st of July we will have in Germany and Austria awaiting transportation, that is, people who have visas, people who have been invited to reestablish themselves in one or another South American country, 4,000 individuals.

Mr. VORYS. We found in Congress that UNRRA's passing is unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

There has been some testimony as to the possible connection between UNRRA personnel and this new organization.

Can you tell us about the plans in that respect?

Mr. HILLDRING. The preparatory commission of the IRO was provided for, Mr. Chairman, by the General Assembly of the UN.

That was established some months ago for the purpose of getting the IRO ready to operate.

Mr. VORYS. That is the present meeting?

Mr. HILLDRING. That is the present meeting in Lausanne.

The present executive secretary of this organization is an American. His main job is to gather together the personnel and get it organized, so that the IRO can undertake its job on the first of July. He is taking, naturally enough, into his new organization those people who have been in this work, who will be able to discharge the functions of the IRO when it comes into being.

He is taking some UNRRA people now on duty on camp maintenance in Germany and Austria, he is taking over certain IGC personnel. This is a difficult question to answer, Mr. Chairman, but I want to say this without assuming the role of champion of the UNRRA:

I haven't had much to do with UNRRA except its work in the DP camps. Generally, the work done in the DP camps has been of a high order. There have been exceptions.

Mr. KEE. It has always been a wonder to me that they did not have more exceptions.

Mr. HILLDRING. However, in my judgment the exceptions have been rare, and I doubt, in my own judgment, that any one has been repatriated against his will. I have assiduously and honestly striven to find a single case where a man was repatriated, or a woman, against his or her will, and so far I have never seen such a case proven.

However, whatever the temptation in UNRRA has been heretofore to do that I do not say they have-I think in the reorganization under the IRO, that temptation will be gone, and I think the answer to that was contained in the list of nations I now have.

Mr. VORYS. The point I wanted to bring out was that some of the participants in the administration of UNRRA, the governmental participants in the administration, will apparently not be participating in the IRO. Is that not right?

Mr. HILLDRING. It seems so, sir.

Mr. VORYS. That is what I was speaking of. That is the way it looks at present.

Mr. HILLDRING. Yes, sir.

Mr. KEE. I understood that at the time of the Senate hearing, on this bill for displaced persons, that about 500,000 of them were now on the hands of the United States.

Mr. HILLDRING. That is about right, sir.

Those figures are in these charts here.

We have in our zones 518,000 in Germany and 70,000 in Austria. There are also 38,000 in the allied camps in Italy. We have 59 percent, or a total of about a little over 600,000, Mr. Kee, out of the 1,037,000. (The charts referred to are as follows:)

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DISPLACED PERSONS REPATRIATED AND REMAINING IN CAMP DECEMBER 31, 1946

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