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and friendship. In my presence, he has repeatedly emphasized his contempt for the Japanese Government, for its businessmen, and for the people of Japan.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Gilberto R. Alemany Vilar's press conference, as printed in full in the Movimiento Unidad Revolucionaria be inserted into the RECORD at this point.

There being no objection, the statement was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

STATEMENT BY GILBERTO R. ALEMANY VILAR

My name is Gilberto R. Alemany Vilar, and a Cuban who, up to a short while ago, held the post of trade counselor to the Cuban Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. I have held this office for 31⁄2 years, and it is now that I publicly resign it.

I studied business and law in Cuba. Through my fellow workers of Unidad Revolucionaria, with whom I have been collaborating, I am requesting that the Government of the United States grant me political asylum, and I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to explain to the gentlemen of the free world press gathered here the reasons that have prompted me to seek such asylum. I began working with the Cuban regime in 1960, when private enterprise had already begun to disappear in Cuba as a result of what was then called socialization, and which later, as was admitted by Fidel Castro himself, turned out to be none other than Marxism-Leninism, the doctrinary label used to cover the worst of tyrannies.

At first I worked at the Ministry of Industry and, by the end of 1961, I was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Trade. In February 1962, I was appointed trade counselor in Japan.

In that post I was able to observe the administrative disorganization that prevailed in my country, the mismanagement of trade matters, and the Communist Government's inability to conduct Cuba's foreign trade wisely. As my firsthand knowledge of this situation grew, so did my concern over the fate of my country, and I eventually lost all faith in these men who were ruining Cuba's economy and sinking my people in despair and starvation.

Our sovereign nation had been incorporated to the Soviet bloc of satellites by the Castro-Communist regime; our impoverished economy was bartered to the Soviet masters in return for guns and military equipment, and for alleged technical and economic assistance that has served only to destroy everything that Cuba had accomplished in the economic and industrial fields during its short history as a republic.

I visited Cuba twice, in 1963 and 1964, and I verified that the situation grew worse every day: administrative chaos prevailed, and oppression-illegal imprisonment and executions had reached unprecedented heights. All liberties had been suppressed: freedom of thought, freedom of the press, even freedom of movement.

This situation, which I witnessed with my own eyes, reaffirmed me in the decision, which I already had made, to fight the Castro tyranny. I made contact with some friends in Unidad Revolucionaria and we began to work jointly toward paralyzing the commercial exchange between the Castro regime and Japan, since the Japanese market is Castro's main source of hard currency.

Now, I wish to pass on to explain the manner in which such trade relations between a free country and a Communist dictatorship have been taking place. The Japanese have been the victims of a monumental deception. For the purpose of maintaining the sales of Cuban sugar to Japan, which is an important importer of that product, the Japanese Government and private firms were told that Cuba's purchases to Japan would be in

creased in order to level the balance of payments, which, up to then, had been totally favorable to the Castro-Communist regime.

The figures were the following: In 1962, the Castro regime made $14 million from the Japanese market; in 1963, it made $12 million; not less than $8 million in 1964; and in 1965, after Japanese imports have been banned in Cuba, it is figured that Castroite revenues from the Japanese market will amount to at least $14 million, after making due allowance for the current low price of sugar. This adds up to a total of $48 million within a 4-year period, which is equivalent to a monthly million dollars worth of economic assistance being paid by Japan to the Castro-Communist regime. To all practical purposes, this is the absolute truth, and there is no sense in putting it in milder terms.

And, what has Fidel Castro done with all that money? The answer is simple. First, he has used the dollars earned from Japan to pay long-term credits granted him by British, French and other Western European firms. Thus, although the Japanese have not themselves granted Castro deferred payment terms, they have in fact helped him to obtain such terms from other countries, as it is obvious that, were it not for his Japanese dollars, he would have been unable to meet his commitments with European companies and these would have long withdrawn their credit.

Second, a substantial amount of these dollars have been used by the Communist régime to promote subversion throughout Latin America, and also to lend financial assistance to the Communist Parties of this hemisphere. It is ironical that about 77 percent of Japanese investments abroad have gone to the same Latin American countries where Castro-financed violence and terror directly attempt against political and economical stability and, consequently, against Japanese investments in such countries.

See, then, Castro's double deception against Japanese business firms, and the use to which he puts the financial benefits of his Japanese market.

It is most important that the members of the Japanese Trade Mission that currently visits Latin America seeking to increase Japan's exchange and investments in these sister Republics, take due notice of the above and carefully analyze the nefarious consequences being had by Japan's trade with Cuba.

To proceed, we shall say that, in 1964, under Japanese pressure, afraid to lose the Japanese sugar market, and also prompted by the then high price of sugar in the world market, the Castro regime decided on a wild, useless plan of purchases from Japan which sunk the Cuban people still deeper in hunger and despair. Over $30 million were spent buying Japanese radios, electrical appliances and scientific equipment which the Cuban Communists did not know how to use. half-million dollars worth of table and glassware was also purchased-which leads one to inquire why, since it is no secret that the starved Cuban people have little use for plates and fountains nowadays.

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Having thus misled the Japanese into believing that the 1964 purchases promised a good, steady Cuban market, the Castro régime was able to sell them a large quantity of sugar in 1965. A new deception. The truth is that, this year, Communist Cuba has been unable to buy as little as a single million dollars worth of merchandise from Japan since, in 1964, Castro spent all his dollars in the manner explained, and those he is getting this year from that country are being used, as we have also said, to pay his European creditors, and in financing subversion throughout Latin America. This is shown by the fact that, early this year, a Castro trade mission visited Japan to give the impression that Cuba was about to make

large purchases there, with the purpose of deceiving the Japanese into buying a considerable amount of sugar. The Japanese fell in the trap, bought the sugar, and the Communist trade mission departed without signing a single buying contract.

This is the kind of people that, by force, run the national destinies of our homeland. People who live by lies, treason, and deception.

Many important Japanese firms are aware of this and have suspended all trade dealings with Cuba. But, unfortunately, other firms such as Hitachi, Mitsui & Co., Iwai, Kanematsu, Sumitomo, C. Itoh, Nissho and others, are still trading with the Castro regime through dummy companies such as Shinnihon, Abe Trading Co., Toho Busan, Kyodo Trading, and others.

The lies and falsified figures employed by the Communists to maintain and increase their trade relations with Japan and other free-world nations were duly exposed by myself in a letter addressed to the Japanese business firms that still maintain such relations with Castro-communism. In that letter, I explained the dangers of continuing such relations, which serve only to inject economic assistance to a Communist tyranny such as Castro's that depends on Japan for over 30 percent of its dollar revenues.

I hope that my Japanese friends have understood the importance of this message and I trust that I will someday have the opportunity to discuss such importance with them.

It is necessary that the Japanese know that with this trade venture with Red Cuba they are risking the loss of the Latin American market, whose volume is of vital importance to Japanese industrial production.

It is also necessary that the Japanese know that the economy of Cuba is in shambles; that the Castro regime does not have the money to pay its European debts, hence its desperate drive to sell sugar to Japan, in order to pay such debts with part of the proceeds of these sales while the remainder is invested in subversion throughout the Americas. The Japanese know that, even though the Cuban people are starving to death and there is no food or milk even to feed children, the Communist regime has offered to sell Japan 4,000 tons of frozen beef. This fact further shows Castro's desperate desire to get dollars from Japan with which to cover his debts, promote subversion and, at the same time, try to impress the Japanese by offering to sell them foodstuffs such as beef, of which there is no exportable surplus in Cuba, and the lack of which is sorely felt by our starving children, women, and elders. It would be inhuman for Japan to buy that amount of beef from Cuba, and the Japanese firms involved should bear in mind that, in their country, there exist strict regulations for the importation of meats as to hygiene, health, purity, and quality of the product which would be very difficult to meet under the circumstances that prevail in Cuba where there are no veterinarians or technicians. It is very unlikely that the Castro-Communist beef will be able to meet such specifications and offer minimal guarantees to Japanese

consumers.

The Hitachi group of companies has been selling to Cuba through a number of "dummy" companies such as Abe Trading Co. The amount of the trade between Hitachi and Cuba, even though vital to the latter, means little in relation to the general volume of Hitachi's business, since that company is one of the largest business concerns in Japan. It is necessary that Hitachi knows that it is an absurdity to continue in this game. Hitachi is getting nothing from this trade, but it is risking the credit of its equipments. For example, the scientific equipment bought from Hitachi by the selfstyled Cuban scientist Dr. Yamil Kouri for

an alleged National Center of Scientific Research, have not yet been installed, and in Cuba no one-absolutely no one knows how to operate them. Some of this equipment has been deteriorating in the warehouse for more than a year, and it will not be long before they are absolutely useless. I ask myself: What can a powerful concern such as Hitachi possibly get from this subversive trade, except international discredit of its trademark?

Osaka's textiles, which were sold to Cuba in fairly large quantities in 1964, should harbor no illusions as to their future possibilities with the Castro régime. Last year's purchases were motivated by political rather than commercial reasons, as is shown by the fact that this year Cuba has hardly bought anything in that line. The Castro régime is buying its fabrics in Red China in return for Chinese preferential treatment of Cuban sugar. And what is still more serious, there are indications that Communist Cuba is buying Japanese textiles from Spain, in order to meet her commitments with that country. May Osaka remember that last year the Castro-Communist régime sent a boastful invitation for a Japanese textile mission to travel to Cuba, and the four Japanese businessmen who accepted the invitation were unable to sell a single yard in the island. It was all a Communist propaganda maneuver, this time at the expense of Japanese gullibility. Japanese sugar importers and refiners are certainly getting advantages (in the form of special discounts, and so forth) from imports of Cuban sugar. But, aside from the moral issue involved in this criminal trade by free-world businessmen, it is necessary that these men pay attention to the fact that they are excessively relying on supplies by a Communist country in which chaos prevails, and with which there can be no guarantee as to the certainty of delivery, as happened last June, when Japan had to buy sugar from Colombia and Brazil because the Castro government was unable to provide sufficient vessels to ship the sugar.

This problem gets worse all the time, and the tyranny is seriously concerned over it, since the gradual decline of free-world shipping to Cuba is plainly noticeable. For example, during the past month of July, only 26 Western ships docked in Cuban ports, while during the same month of last year a total of 35 free world ships sailed to Cuba and as many as 40 did the same in July 1963. As may be seen, this means a decline of 65 percent in 1965 in relation to 1963. There is no doubt that this is a result of the boycott declared by the dockworkers of the Americas, as well as of some of the activities that are being carried out by our compatriots in Unidad Revolucionaria and in other Cuban exile organizations.

But as is this decline in free-world shipping were not enough, it must be added that the vessels that the Castro-Communist regime is using for its sugar shipments are, for the most part, old boats, some of them built before 1940, which are the only ones available in the charter market. Foodstuffs such as sugar cannot be transported in these obsolete old clunkers, lest they be contaminated with rust. In contact with the old, rusty iron, sugar loses its natural color, its quality is affected, and all the well-known phenomena that have been publicized by the press take place with it. It is necessary that the Japanese businessmen think: Even these old ships, how much longer will they be available to the Castro regime in the world charter market? They must remember that international maritime concerns have joint interests and commitments with other free-world nations that, sooner or later, will keep these vessels from being used in this traffic that helps maintain the slavery of the Cuban people. It has been British, Lebanese, and Greek vessels for the most part that, up to now, have solved Red Cuba's shipping prob

lem, even though they are well aware of the fact that, by doing this, they help sink 7 million souls into pain, misery, and poverty. million souls into pain, misery, and poverty.

Lastly, it is necessary that the Japanese authorities, the business firms and the people learn that the Cuban Ambassador to Japan, who is all sweet smiles to them, does not think much of Japanese integrity and inclination to work. That, being a convinced Communist, he sees enemies in Japanese businessmen, since, to him, they represent democracy and free enterprise, so loathsome to Marxist-Leninists. He is being a hypocrite and a faker when he offers them sympathy and friendship. In my presence, he has repeatedly emphasized his contempt for the Japanese Government, for its businessmen, and for the people of Japan.

Soon, Mr. Arnold Rodriguez, the Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Relations, will arrive in Tokyo. The Cuban Ambassador, three or four politicking members of the Government Party, and the local Communists, will use Vice Minister Rodriguez to try to deceive Japanese authorities and businessmen into believing that Japanese-Cuban trade will continue and even increase. This is false, and the Japanese Government and business must know it.

Besides the aforementioned economic reasons, we wish to make a special call on the Japanese people, among whom we have had the honor of living for the last 3 years. Think of the Cuban women and children who suffer poverty and starvation; think of the political prisoners, who suffer indescribable agony in the Red dungeons of Cuba; think of the thousands of young men who have been shot at the infamous execu

tion wall; think of freedom, completely crushed in the face of 7 million Cubans. I am sure that the people of Japan would not like to have a Communist regime ruling them, and that is why I call on them not to cooperate with their business to the maintainance of the Castro-Communist tyranny that oppresses the Cuban people and exports terror and subversion to all the peoples of the Americas.

These are the reasons why I have requested political asylum in the United States of America, and I avail myself of this opportunity to express my gratitude to my dear comrades of Unidad Revolucionaria for the constant attentions that they have had with my family and with myself, and for the opportunity given me today to publicly express views on the Cuban tragedy.

From now on, I shall devote myself, body and soul, to the relentless struggle that will culminate in the destruction of the Castro tyranny and in the total eradication of Communism from Cuba and from the Americas.

MIAMI, August 27, 1965.

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CARPINA, BRAZIL.-On any clear day diners in the air-conditioned, 12-story skyscraper restaurant some 27 miles distant in the huge city of Recife can see well into this desolate area where unemployed peasants and jobless sugar mill workers eat a glorified sawdust called farinha.

It has no color, no taste, no food value. But it fills the stomach because it is bulky ground-up root. And for a few hours it keeps children from whimpering for food.

Occasionally fortune strikes. Some of the 220,000 hungry people whose breadwinners are jobless come onto beans or molasses or edible ants and then the farinha stew does have a taste.

It is so not only around Carpina, a long jeep ride from Recife, the massive metropolis of Brazil's frontier northeast where cowboys still ride in leather hats. Hunger stalks 28 million people in this bulge-three times the size of France.

Jammed in strips between the ocean and the dried-out mountains, ravaged regularly by lethal flashfloods, it is the "India" of the Western World. It is made to order for the Maoists, the Moscovites, the Trotskyites, and the Fidelistas. They all were here before the military revolution, organizing their peasant leagues, spreading hatred against the United States, and preparing for "the day."

But these peasants and workers have no stomachs empty as they are for hatred. The other day some 75 of them cheered this reporter simply because the visitor is from the United States. They have seen only a handful of Americans—and in that handful is a dramatic story which proves we can win even the saddened and the hungry, even the mothers and fathers of naked children, over to freedom's side and keep the Communists from exploiting their misery.

Among the few Americans who have come to this desolation are the small band of men who have given up the ease of living in the States to come here as a sort of U.S. labormanagement private peace corps. They make up the team of the local American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) of which AFL-CIO President George Meany is intercontinental chairman.

His support comes not only from American labor but from such corporations as Pan American World Airways and General Motors, who want nothing more than to develop skilled and knowledgeable labor officials to stave off Communist infiltration and to feed the starving.

I drove out to Carpina, for here the AIFLD will build the first of 10 regional "centros servicos componeses"-centers to service the rural working people. Each will be a union headquarters costing about $25,000 apiece. Each will be constructed with the assistance of the U.S. AID mission.

From these centers special services will radiate into the surrounding countryside. big room to which the workers can come to Each headquarters will have movies and a socialize. Each will have a legal adviser. There will be a clinic staffed 3 days a week with a doctor, a nurse, and a dentist, so perhaps children won't die as quickly as they do.

There will be "kiddie" playgrounds and a if they have the time. There will be credit spot for the women to gather and learn crafts unions, joint consumer buying to lower the cost of food, land leasing associations and

finally an office for planning of rural low cost housing.

This is essentially a union-to-union approach. In a broad sense, the Communist Party used this technique in Italy. Had democratic forces gotten there "fustest with the mostest," as AIFLD is doing here, the Italian Communist Party would not now be rolling up 9 million votes.

But man here cannot live on dreams alone. There must be food. And the Catholic Relief Services has been getting food from the food for peace agency back home. It is shipped to Recife under Public Law 480. Then it rolls out into the countryside. But this takes trucks and the big vans cost money. So AIFLD has appropriated the funds to carry the food to the hungry families-600 tons in this district alone.

In a primitive meeting hall we told them more victuals were coming. And perhaps some free medicine, too.

A peasant worker, barefooted but in a clean Sunday shirt, said slowly in his native Portuguese:

"We want no charity. Give us work."

There were tears in his voice. The visitor wept a bit, too, as he headed out of the white hot sun for the air conditioning and tower restaurant of what we euphemistically call civilization.

MYSTERY IN AMAZONIA

(By Victor Riesel)

RECIFE, BRAZIL.-Legends of head shrinking and majestic giant women warriors along the Amazon and deep in the Brazilian jungle, which covers territory as vast as the United States west of the Mississippi, always have excited energetic explorers. But that's fiction.

There is real mystery in Amazonia and this neighboring northeast territory-modern intrigue centering on an intricate international military arms smuggling ring whose members make Ian Fleming characters appear as amateurish as silent movie flicker detectives.

That smuggling ring, in which are several Americans, use fast small planes to leapfrog the jungle with their cargoes of Communist China's machineguns, submachineguns, .45s and rifles.

I've followed their routes from Georgetown, British Guiana, to Paramaribo, Surinam (the ring's headquarters), over the jungle to Belem, and on to Recife-a metropolitan area of 1,100,000, half of whose workers are jobless, underemployed, hungry and desperate.

The Brazilian intelligence service claims to have penetrated the ring, and now the authorities declare they have the names of the key smugglers, pilots and couriers-one of whom actually hires night club dancing girls as a business front.

I take the word of the austere Brazilian Government that these arms have been bound for the Communist followers of a jailed congressman named Francisco Juliao, friend of Mao Tse-tung and creator of the peasant workers' leagues in this almost aboriginal bulge of the South American Continent.

I take the word of the courageous young priest, Father Antonio Melo, that Juliao is a revolutionary Communist of Peiping persua

sion.

I take Francisco Juliao's word for it too. There is documentary evidence that he declared himself a "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Castroist, Ben Bellaist" ideologist.

It is unfortunate that the Ho Chi-Minhs of the world are not discovered by the "outside" across the globe before they hurl guerrilla armies at the governments of nations allied with the United States and international freedom. The Ho Chi-Minhs are of many kinds and come in Western garb, too.

Francisco Juliao is one of them. Knowing of the hunger and desperation here he set up headquarters in this city. From it he launched the Peasant Leagues. They were

agricultural workers' unions and tens of thousands flocked to him. He looked to the east for his ideology. He believed in rural revolution. He thought he could organize the agrarian unions into military and guerrilla bands.

He was certain it was possible. The peasants here are much like the Chinese-vastly illiterate, ghastly impoverished, tilling on equally poor soil to which they have been tied since they were slaves under the Brazilian emperor of the last century.

Francisco Juliao is aware of the power that is inherent in trade union organization-be it amongst the workers in the fields or in the factories. As the labor people go, frequently, so goes the nation.

Juliao broke with the Moscovities. The Russian brand of comrades infiltrated the big industrial unions, from the waterfront to the shops and plants. They believed such a base, tied to the pro-Communist Goulart regime, could launch a revolution from the top instead of from below.

But they ran second to Juliao. He caught the imagination of the peasants. He sent his children to Cuba and wooed Castro and in turn was wooed by the Fidelistas. He went to Peiping and talked with Mao.

Then came the revolution-but not Juliao's. The armed forces revolted against the heavily infiltrated national regime whose power was based on the muscle of the Communist longshoremen's unions. The military smashed the Communist unions. The new regime put in new officials as trusteesmany of them trained in Washington at the American Institute for Free Labor Development.

BANK MERGERS

Mr. ROBERTSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the RECORD a lucid explanation of the pending bank merger bill by its copatron, the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. PROXMIRE], before the House Committee on Banking and Currency.

There being no objection, the statement was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

STATEMENT BY SENATOR WILLIAM PROXMIRE ON S. 1698, a BILL TO AMEND THE BANK MERGER ACT, FOR PRESENTATION TO THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY

I am here to support S. 1698, Senator ROBERTSON'S bill to amend the Bank Merger Act which, as revised by my amendmentthe Proxmire amendment-the Senate Banking and Currency Committee adopted without dissent and the Senate passed without objection after the Hart amendment to eliminate the exemption for cases now pending in court had been defeated.

When this bill came before the Senate Banking Committee, I was, frankly, deeply concerned about it. It had been argued that the intent of the 1960 act was to clarify the responsibility of bank regulatory agencies to act on mergers with the advice but not with the veto of the Department of Justice.

Four of the fifteen members of the Senate Banking Committee in 1959 felt strongly enough about that bill to file the supplementary views at that time. It was one of those four Senators.

Let me read one paragraph from those views:

"Previous bank merger legislation approved by this committee and passed by the Senate would have given the banking agencies discretionary authority to consult with the Attorney General. We agree with the testimony of the Department of Justice that the agencies should consult the Attorney General in every instance so that the enforcement of the statute shall be uniform and in line with the enforcement of the other anti

trust laws. While we would have preferred to have given the Attorney General even more influence to stop mergers when he thought competition might be substantially lessened, the bill amended by the committee is a vast improvement over previous legislation which only permitted participation of the Department of Justice when desired by the banking agencies."

Those views were also signed by Senators DOUGLAS, CLARK and MUSKIE. Now remember that was in 1959, and it was written in relation to the bill that became law the following year and became the Bank Merger Act of 1960.

So when the Department of Justice apparently went farther than that 1960 act seemed to provide, frankly I was pleased. The 1960 act had made some progress in bringing the Department of Justice into the act as an adviser in every case, I repeat in every case. Somehow their own initiative had carried them beyond that and brought them into direct action beyond our fondest hopes as expressed in those supplemental views.

So I was concerned about a 1965 bill which appeared to confine the Department of Justice to the advisory role set forth in the 1960 legislation.

It was in this context that I offered my amendment to keep the Justice Department in the bank merger act from now in perpetuity. Needless to say, I think it represents a clear and decisive gain for those who believe in competition and vigorous antitrust action.

Frankly, I was astounded that the Attorney General suddenly but belatedly appeared to attack this bill. When the bill was pending in the Senate, he was invited and reinvited to appear before our committee. He had an observer present. I did my best in interrogating witnesses to bring out the importance of putting the Department of Justice squarely-by statute in the act if it were possible. But there wasn't a word, no letter, not even a phone call of encouragement from the Justice Department.

My amendment keeps the Department of Justice in the business of stopping bank mergers that conflict with the antitrust laws in perpetuity-forever.

What is more, my amendment not only keeps the Justice Department in the ball game, it significantly improves the Department's position.

The amendment does this by preventing banks from merging while suits are pending. As a practical matter, it is sure that the Justice Department will lose cases precisely because banks have merged following a favorable initial court decision, but before the court acts on the Justice Department appeal.

A court confronted with the sure injury that unscrambling a merger is likely to impose on innocent borrowers, depositors, and stockholders may reluctantly acquiesce in the merger.

Since banks are permitted to go ahead with mergers now when antitrust cases are pending and, of course, do, this provision of the bill constitutes a clear and decisive gain for the antitrust action.

The desirability of this provision of my amendment has been strongly attacked by a financial writer, J. W. Livingston, on the ground that it makes it more difficult to merge banks than is now the case. I agree. My amendment was not designed to benefit banks, but to benefit the public. As the committee report states, we recognized this provision placed in the hands of the Justice Department a considerable measure of authority which would have to be used with care and discretion, since many banks might feel they have to abandon a merger at the mere threat of a suit by the Justice Department. The committee, therefore, called on the Justice Department to use this opportunity to hold up bank mergers with care and discretion.

And I am glad to say that the Attorney General, in his reply to my request for his comments on Mr. Livingston's suggestion to eliminate this provision of my amendment, stated that this provision provided a "significant advantage" over the present situation. Let me repeat the Attorney General writes me this provision of my amendment provides a "significant advantage." Those are Attorney General Katzenbach's words. I should like to ask that copies of the letters from the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and the Attorney General on this point be included in the RECORD.

Now in return for this quid we give two very modest quos. First, we limit the Department of Justice to 30 days after the favorable decision of the regulatory agency to bring suit, and with the 30 days they have to report to the banking agency-in fact, a minimum of 60 days.

Since the Department is in this from the beginning in advising the regulatory agency on the competitive facets involved this should be ample time. And it removes a serious, overhanging threat, which tends to undermine confidence so essential to banking soundness.

Second, the bill provides that banks that have merged will be spared the agony of unscrambling. This I shall discuss a little further later.

But all in all, it seems to me that any fairminded man would consider this a pretty good trade for a law placing the Department of Justice for the first time in a position to act on mergers with full legal sanction from now on, and also for a law preventing mergers until final court action.

Why isn't this an excellent advance for antitrust, all things considered?

My amendment is a practical solution to a confused and controversial situation. My amendment would leave untouched the principle of the applicability of the Sherman. Act and section 7 of the Clayton Act to future bank mergers, in accordance with the decisions of the Supreme Court in the Philadelphia and Lexington, Ky., cases, but it would eliminate the necessity of unscrambling any future bank merger by providing the Justice Department a reasonable opportunity to sue before consummation of the merger. My amendment would prevent the breakup of banks which have already merged, either before these landmark decisions, or pursuant to a district court judgment specifically authorizing the merger while litigation was being carried on, or otherwise.

The present bank merger situation arose out of the completely new and unexpected interpretation of section 7 of the Clayton Act, announced in the Philadelphia decision and the almost equally unexpected decision as to the Sherman Act in the Lexington case. Up until these decisions it was generally understood that section 7 of the Clayton Act, as amended by the Celler-Kefauver amendment in 1950, did not apply at all to the usual bank merger. It was also generally understood that the Sherman Act was ineffective as far as bank mergers were concerned; in any event, the Sherman Act had never been applied to bank mergers by the Supreme Court and had never been used in any court in connection with a bank merger up to March of 1959. Additional legislation controlling bank mergers was necessary because the antitrust laws were either inapplicable or ineffective with respect to bank mergers. This was the advice given to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee in 1959 by Congressman CELLER, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and it was the advice given by the Department of Justice on six different occasions and by the President in his Economic Reports for 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960.

On the basis of this understanding, the Senate decided in 1959, and the House agreed in 1960, to pass the Bank Merger

Act of 1960. Under this act, the three banking agencies were clearly established as the final authorities to approve or disapprove mergers of insured banks. Each Federal banking agency had to obtain a report on the competitive factors involved in each bank merger from the other Federal banking agencies and from the Attorney General. However, it was clear that these advisory reports on competitive factors were not binding on the banking agencies, which were instructed to consider banking factors, such as the public convenience and necessity, as well as the competitive factors, and which could approve the mergers after this consideration only if they found the merger in the public interest.

The Congress specifically decided not to make applicable to bank mergers the strict standards of section 7, under which a merger would be denied if it would tend to substantially decrease competition in any one section of the country in any one line of commerce, regardless of good motives and demonstrable benefits of one kind or another which might flow from the merger.

I have earlier in this statement expressed my personal views on that 1960 legislation. The Supreme Court in the Philadelphia case held that section 7 of the Clayton Act, as amended by the 1950 Celler-Kefauver antimerger amendment, applied to bank mergers. While this was contrary to the understanding of the Congress and the position the Congress had taken in the Bank Merger Act of 1960, it is the decision of the Supreme Court.

The Sherman Act also was applied in the Lexington case under circumstances not contemplated in 1959 and 1960. Instead of the more general standards adopted in the Columbia Steel case, the rigid standards of four railroad cases, widely thought to be obsolete, were applied to a bank merger with results closely approximating the Clayton Act standards.

The net result of the present situation is that the Attorney General, instead of serving in an advisory capacity to the Federal banking agencies, may start a suit on his own initiative against any merger, either a future merger or, under the 1950 amendment to section 7 of the Clayton Act, any merger effected after 1950, or under the Sherman Act any merger effected since 1890. It may be recalled that the divestiture order in the Du

Pont-General Motors case applied to stock acquired in the 1920's, 30 or 40 years before

the divestiture was ordered.

Senator ROBERTSON's original bill, S. 1698, as he introduced it, would have exempted completely from the antitrust laws, including both the Sherman Act and section 7 of the Clayton Act, all mergers approved under the Bank Merger Act, past, present, and future, and all mergers approved by the appropriate Federal or State authority before the Bank Merger Act. Senator ROBERTSON felt that this would restore the situation to what it was thought to be, and what it was for all practical purposes, at the time of the enactment of the Bank Merger Act and before the Supreme Court's decisions in the Philadelphia and the Lexington cases.

My amendment, as I have said, would prohibit the consummation of a merger approved within 30 days after its approval. This would give the Justice Department time to start a suit under the Sherman Act or section 7 of the Clayton Act without being prejudiced by the fact that the merger had already been consummated. If such a suit were started, the merger could not be completed until after the suit had been concluded. If, however, the Justice Department did not sue within this 30 day waiting period or if, at the end of the suit, the Court decreed that the merger might be carried out, then the merger would be exempted from the laws, including both the Sherman Act and section 7 of the Clayton Act. The

merger could no longer be the subject of any proceedings under the laws, either by the Department of Justice or by private parties through a triple damage suit.

In the case of mergers already consummated at the date of enactment of the bill, a similar exemption would be provided by my amendment from all proceedings under the antitrust laws, including both the Sherman Act and section 7 of the Clayton Act, and including both suits by the Justice Department and triple damage suits by private parties.

As far as future mergers are concerned, my amendment leaves the Justice Department just as free as it is now to institute suits under the Sherman Act or the Clayton Act during the 30 days waiting period. In this connection, it is pertinent to note that the Justice Department has 30 days to file a report under the Bank Merger Act, so it would in fact have 60 days in every case. And the experience of the Federal Reserve Board, as shown in hearings this year, is that merger cases average about 32 months before approval.

And, as I have said, my amendment would be even more rigorous than the present situation because it would not permit banks to merge under any circumstances while such a suit was pending. In the ContinentalIllinois case, in the Nashville case, in the Crocker-Citizens case, and in the St. Louis case, district courts, after hearing arguments from the Justice Department and from the banks involved, permitted the banks to go ahead and merge while the suit was pending. This would be impossible under my amendment. I inserted this provision for two reasons. First, I thought that to permit the merger to be effected while the suit was pending would prejudice the Department of Justice in its efforts to win the case and to convince the court to order the breakup of the merged bank. I think the Justice Department is finding this a real problem. Second, I am opposed to any attempt to unscramble or to break up merged banks. Banks are of real importance to the country, to the government, and to business, trade and the public generally. Most of our money supply is in the form of demand deposits in banks. Most industrial, commercial, individual and governmental receipts and payments are made by check. Most of the Nation's business depends on bank credit and financing. It is because of the importance of banking to the Nation that we have a national bank system, a Federal Reserve System and a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. I thought it would be bad, not only for the banks' officers and employees and stockholders, but also, and more importantly, for the banks' depositors, borrowers and trust accounts and for the government and the public generally. The difficulties which the Government is having in Lexington and New York are, I think, clear evidence that these are real and substantial problems.

I included in my amendment an exemption for all mergers which had been consummated at the time of enactment of the bill and had not yet been unscrambled. I did so for two reasons. First, I felt that most of these mergers had been approved and had been carried out at a time when there was a general understanding in Congress, in the executive branch and among the legal profession that bank mergers were for all practical purposes exempt from the anti

trust laws.

This was, as you know, the position taken by Kaysen and Turner in their book on antitrust policy. Without wishing to question the decision of the Supreme Court in the Philadelphia and Lexington cases, I think it is fair to say that for practical purposes these cases had the effect of new legislation. And I think it is appropriate under these circumstances to apply to rules established for the first time by the Supreme Court decisions the

same principles against retroactive legislation and against ex post facto laws as the Constitution applies to laws generally. Furthermore, in several of these cases preliminary injunctions were sought by the Justice Department against the merger even before the consummation of the merger, and in some of these cases the trial court authorized the merger on the ground that there was no reason to believe that the Government would be successful. In the case of the approved mergers on which no suits have been started, including those approved under the 1960 act and those approved by the Comptroller or the appropriate State bank supervisor in the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's, I felt that the need for certainty and confidence in the banking system outweighed any possible interest the Attorney General might have in attacking a merger consummated 5 or 10 or 20 years ago.

My second and more important reason was that I do not think it is good for the Government, for business, industry, and commerce or for the public to attempt to break up or unscramble banks which have already merged. I have already discussed this point, and I need not elaborate on it further here. My amendment would exempt future mergers from the antitrust laws, including the Clayton Act and the Sherman Act, at the expiration of the 30-day waiting period. It would not, however, immunize banks created by such mergers from future attacks under the antitrust laws for later conduct which might violate the antitrust laws. If, for instance, a bank resulting from an exempted merger should engage in action found to be a violation of the prohibitions of section 1 of the Sherman Act against illegal restraints on trade or commerce, or the prohibitions of section 2 of the Sherman Act against monopolization, or some other action which might be a violation of an applicable provision of the Clayton Act, my amendment would not provide any protection against action by the Department of Justice, or by private parties through a triple damage suit, arising out of activities of this sort subsequent to the merger.

Senator JAVITS and I discussed this point on the Senate floor during the debate on S. 1698, and made it clear that the Senate understood and agreed with the position I have expressed above.

I am in favor of strong and effective com

petition in banking. I believe this is good for the banks and their officers, employees and stockholders. I believe competition in banking is also good for those who wish to deposit money in banks, or to borrow money from banks, or to make banks their trustees, and for those who wish to carry on business and financial make their transactions through the 130-odd billion dollars worth of demand deposits. Incidentally, I believe competition in banking is good for the Government, which must sell vast quantities of Government obligations in the money market. These same considerations convince

me that sound banking is just as important as competitive banking. My support for competition in banking does not make me wish for the return of the good old days of "free banking" when one could start a bank and issue bank notes freely without any Government review or supervision. More recent experience with unregulated savings and loan associations in Maryland should disabuse us as to the supposed merits of full and free competition in the financial world.

The history of our Nation shows our unending concern with sound banking and competitive banking. The First and Second Banks of the United States tended, it was thought, toward monopoly and undue concentration. The era of free banking in the 1830's and 1840's went the other way. The national bank system, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance system showed the United States groping to

ward a workable combination of competition and soundness, and obviously the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 and the Bank Merger Act of 1960 reflected Congress' concern with banking even more sharply.

With all its faults, I think our present dual banking system, made up of some 14,000 commercial banks, divided into 51 different bank systems, each with its national and State bank elements, with branches and holding companies limited to the several systems, provides a very high degree of competition and a very high degree of soundness and security.

This country has the only truly competitive banking system in the world. Other free nations either rely on government banks or on a very small number of huge private

banks.

Furthermore, our banking system with some 14,000 independently owned banks is far more competitive than most American industries. Aluminum, steel, automobiles, insurance, newspapers and virtually all other major industries have far higher degrees of

concentration.

In my judgment, this banking competition is good and is a principal reason for the vigor and strength of American competition generally. The bank merger bill would keep it that way by taking by far the strongest action to stem bank mergers the Congress has ever taken.

THE DANGER OF A HEMISPHERIC VIETNAM

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, within the last few days there has come to my attention that the Castro radio in its broadcasts to Haiti is now providing its Haitian audience with regular readings from Che Guevara's book on guerrilla strategy.

Within the last few days, too, I have learned of another broadcast from Cuba from the renegade American Negro, Robert F. Williams, urging Negro extremists in this country to "learn to shoot and handle explosives."

When the impending showdown comes, use the match and the torch unsparingly. The flame of retribution must not be limited to urban buildings and centers, but the countryside must go up in smoke also. Remember

the forests, the fields, and the crops. Remember the pipelines and oil storage tanks.

At the conclusion of my remarks I ask that more extensive quotations from Mr. Williams' Broadcast of August 21, to American Negroes be inserted.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

(See exhibit 1.)

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, it is against this background that I ask unanimous consent to insert into the RECORD the text of a speech on the "Danger of a Hemispheric Vietnam," which I delivered last Thursday before the national committee of the American Legion in Portland, Oreg.

In this speech I pointed out that the Castro Communists are now openly talking of the prospect of a hemispheric Vietnam, that guerrilla forces are now operating in a dozen or more Latin countries, and that there is a constant influx of new guerrilla trainees from about 30 guerrilla training centers now operated in Latin America. by the Castro Communists in Cuba and

I said that it was frightening to contemplate what would happen if we were ever confronted with a Hemispheric

Vietnam, with guerrilla uprisings occurring simultaneously in Brazil, and Uruguay and Colombia and Bolivia and Nicaragua and Guatemala, and then spreading out to other countries. I said that we had to make up our minds that Castro had to go and that Cuba had to be liberated so that the countries of the Americas could together embark on that true democratic revolution which we in our country have pioneered, and which points the way to the future of all mankind.

I hope that my colleagues will find the time to read my remarks because I honestly believe that there is no more urgent problem confronting us.

There being no objection, the statement was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

VIETNAM AND LATIN AMERICA: THE DANGER OF A HEMISPHERIC VIETNAM (Remarks of Senator THOMAS J. DODD before the national convention of the American Legion, Portland, Oreg., Aug. 25, 1965) The invitation to address your national convention means very much to me, not only because of the respect I have for your great organization but also because it has over the years encouraged citizen concern with our major problems of foreign policy and has given its uncompromising support to those policies which advance our national security and protect the peace.

That this is so is not surprising. There are no more passionate advocates of peace than those who, like the members of the American Legion, know the meaning of war. on the other hand, the members of the American Legion know well that peace cannot be purchased or protected by appeasement and that aggression cannot be wished away by burying one's head in the sand.

You know, because you have experienced these things in your own lives, that the surest way to destroy peace is to close one's eyes to reality and to retreat before aggressors. You know that peace can only be protected through strength, and that freedom can only be protected if we are willing to pledge to its defense "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

This to me is what the American Legion stands for. And this is why I consider it a very special privilege to be able to address your convention today.

nity to discuss with you the increasingly I want to take advantage of this opportucritical situation in Latin America.

We have, I fear, been so engrossed with the war in Vietnam that most of us have failed to note the storm clouds forming on our Latin American horizon.

Even the Dominican uprising we were disposed to put down as a passing storm.

And as soon as its fury had spent itself we again turned our eyes away from Latin America back to Vietnam, where almost 100,000 American boys are now committed to a life-and-death struggle with the aggressive forces of Asian communism.

Vietnam is not a diversion to distract our attention from Latin America.

sion intended to distract our attention from Nor was the Dominican uprising a diverVietnam.

Latin America and southeast Asia are two major fronts in the battle between the forces of freedom and the forces of international communism.

And each of these fronts is of such great importance that the war can probably be

won or lost in either area.

have been engaged in the past, the war in More than any other war in which we Vietnam has driven home to the American people the terrible difficulty of coping with

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