ALBANIAN REFUGEES ASK

A few days ago the American Senate approved a special bill to permit 200,000 refugees to enter the United States within the next two years. Before this bill becomes law it must pass the House of Representatives, but the House is expected to approve it without difficulty.

With this, the United States has shown that they really want to contribute to the solution of the problem of refugees from the countries oppressed by the Red regime. The law will particularly benefit the refugees from the Baltic countries, and after them the others.

Without doubt our country is among those where Red terror and oppression have fallen the heaviest. About 2,000 persons have fled from Albania and are now in exile.

Many of these persons have asked permission to emigrate to the United States. Since the end of the war, not more than forty of them have been able to obtain a visa, although the Albanian quota is 100 persons per year.

We understand quite well that the State Department is right to use caution, in order to prevent the infiltration of individuals whose democratic principles have not been proven. But one thing is certain and that is that among the Albanians who have left their country and who have applied for emigration to the United States there are none who can arouse suspicion from this point of view. All of them are enemies of totalitarianism and of communism. Had they had even a small amount of sympathy for the Red regime, they would not have continued to live in the daily privations and suffering of the refugee camps, but would have returned to Albania

The aim of this brief note is to beg the competent American authorities to show more comprehension and more expedition in granting visas to our refugees, who will be truly and sincerely grateful.