This is my hope for redress, and it is strengthened by the thought that those fellow citizens of mine who lost the fruits of their labor in Germany, or in the Philippines, the latter of which have already been provided for by the Congress, and the former for whose relief the administration is now sponsoring legislation, have already found that the Congress will look upon all as being equal before the law, and that it will take appropriate measures to maintain that fundamental principle. The early enactment of H. R. 10549 would accomplish that high purpose.

I am old enough to be entitled to receive a Federal check each month as reward for having lived so long; but that same antiquity militates against my getting employment remunerative enough as to enable my family to enjoy such niceties of life as were hoped for as a reward for earlier diligence and self-denial. My wife applies herself as a dramatic and dancing teacher, a project born of necessity. Our son is in the Navy, in the hospital at St. Albans with a broken neck. In conclusion let me say that my faith that the Congress will continue to respect considerations of high principle is not shaken by the fact that although to date no action has been taken to compensate me for meritorious claims which were waived by my Government, my Government now commands that I repay it certain expenses it incurred in my behalf which grow out of the same set of circumstances which make it impossible for me to meet the obligation, and which forced me to incur the obligation. A few days ago I received a communication from the Department of Justice. It demands that I reimburse the Government for the expenses it incurred in repatriating me and my family to the United States after we were released from internment in China. At the time of repatriation we, and a large number of other Americans similarly situated, were practically penniless, and had no means of providing for our own passage home. While I recognize the obligation, I am not now able to discharge it--although the Department of Justice talks about a 10-day deadline for payment, after which they state suit will be brought against me.

So that right may prevail and distress be relieved, I hope that you will work for the early enactment of H. R. 10549.

STATEMENT OF ALBERT M. DUNLAP

My name is Albert M. Dunlap. I live at R. F. D. 4, Box 493, Alexandria, Va. I am a doctor of medicine, now retired.

I wish to add this statement to that of the Far East Group, Inc., submitted to this subcommittee on this subject, in support of the Far East Group's proposed amendments to H. R. 6730, or in the alternative in support of H. R. 10549. I was born at Savoy, Ill., on January 15, 1884. Upon graduation from the University of Illinois in 1906 with the degree of A. B. I entered Harvard Medical School and was graduated in 1910 with the degree of M. D. In the summer of 1911 I went to Shanghai, China, and was in charge of the eye, ear, nose, and throat department at the Harvard Medical School of China. I returned to America in 1916 for further studies at Harvard Medical School and at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. I returned to China in 1918, and was in charge of the nose, throat, and ear department of Peking Union Medical College, an institution founded by the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1931 I became the head of nose, throat, and ear department of St. John's University at Shanghai, China.

I also engaged in China in the private practice of my specialty. I, with my family, was living in Shanghai on Pearl Harbor Day.

I was repatriated to the United States in the fall of 1943 on the exchange vessel, motorship Gripsholm, as an exchange prisoner in the international exchange which was reached with the Japanese.

Just before liberation, my eldest son, James Monroe Dunlap, died in the internment camp in Shanghai, as a result of malnutrition and repeated attacks of malaria for which the Japanese had not provided adequate medicine.

From 1944 through 1946 I was visiting professor of otolaryngology at the University of Chicago.

I returned to Shanghai, China, in December of 1946 to resume the practice of my profession and to resume my teaching post at St. John's University. On October 23, 1952, permission to leave was finally granted by the Chinese Communists and I left China on that date. I have written a book of my experiences under the Chinese Communists, entitled "Behind the Bamboo Curtain,” which

has recently been published, portions of which having lately been read over the air by the Voice of America.

My first war losses in China, as a result of Japanese aggression, were sustained in the winter of 1937-38, when fighting took place between the Japanese and Chinese in the suburbs of Shanghai. A small house which belonged to me was burned by the Japanese soldiers. After Pearl Harbor day, when the Japanese took over effective control of the International Settlement at Shanghai, my large nursery and garden were completely destroyed, including several thousand trees. My office was sealed by the Japanese and a large portion of the most important equipment as well as furniture was removed by them. The furniture in our house was sequestered by the Japanese, and their employees moved into and lived in our house. My automobile was sequestered by them, for which the Japanese authorities gave me a receipt. These and other losses sustained by me at the hands of the Japanese nearly wiped out my savings of a lifetime.

All claims for these losses have been wiped out by the provisions of article 14 of the peace treaty with Japan under which American claims for losses in China as a result of the war with Japan have been waived by the United States Government.

These claims were surrendered by the United States in the belief that the interests of this Nation would be better served by lightening the burden of reparations to enable Japan to rebuild a sound economy. This resulted in serious inequities to our citizens whose claims were sacrificed to promote a foreign policy deemed advantageous to the Nation as a whole.

I do not challenge the propriety of that action. However, it has long been recognized by our Government that when the United States relinquishes the claims of its citizens against a foreign government in pursuance of the national interest of the United States, it assumes an obligation to provide compensation to those whose rights are thus destroyed. When the Japanese treaty was under consideration, Mr. John Foster Dulles submitted a memorandum to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in which he stated that "United States nationals whose claims are not covered by the treaty provisions or by the legislation of other Allied Powers, must look for relief to the Congress of the United States." H. R. 6730, one of the bills now before this subcommittee, was introduced at the request of the administration; a letter from Mr. John Foster Dulles in favor of the bill was put into the Congressional Record on the introduction of the bill. This bill has for its main purposes:

(1) The return to the Germans and Japanese of certain of their properties situated in the United States which were vested, during the war, by the American Alien Property Custodian; and

(2) The payment of compensation by the United States to Americans having war claims against Germany for damage and loss caused by Germany within Germany, Albania, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Poland, Yugoslavia, and on the high seas; personal injury and death claims as well as property loss and damage claims are included.

This bill ignores and omits the equally meritorious claims of our citizens who suffered losses as a result of military action by Japan outside of Japan proper. It is clear to us that such discrimination between one group of citizens and another constitutes a flagrant injustice.

I feel that H. R. 6730 and other similar bills now before this subcommittee, if they are to receive favorable consideration, should be amended to provide for compensation of American war claimants against Japan on the same basis as is provided for compensation of American claimants against Germany, or, in the alternative, that the Congress should enact H. R. 10549, which bill is now before this committee.

H. R. 10549 is the same in all respects-word for word-as that portion of the administration's bill, H. R. 6730, which provides for the compensation of Americans having war claims as a result of German action except that H. R. 10549 provides for the compensation of Americans having war claims as a result of Japanese action as well as for the compensation of Americans having claims as a result of German action. H. R. 10549 entirely omits the provision in H. R. 6730 for the return to Germany and Japan of certain of their properties situated in the United States which were vested by the Alien Property Custodian. The matter of the return of these properties to the former enemies of the United States is a matter on which I do not wish to express any opinion at this time except to state that in my view the matter of the long-delayed compensation of Americans on their war claims is of much higher priority and urgency than the hotly disputed claims of our former enemies to the return of the vested property.

I strongly urge the speedy adoption of legislation which would provide equal treatment for all our citizens who have suffered the kinds of war losses covered by these bills.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT T. BRYAN, JR.

My name is Robert Thomas Bryan, Jr. I live at 3806 Columbia Pike, apartment 11, Arlington 4, Va. By profession, I am an attorney at law, and presently employed by the National Security Agency.

I wish to supplement the statement of the Far East Group, Inc., submitted to this subcommittee in support of H. R. 10549.

I was born at Shanghai, China, of missionary parents on October 13, 1892. I graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1916, having previously been admitted to the bar of the State of North Carolina in the same year. After a short period of practicing law in Wilmington, N. C., I returned to Shanghai where I was born and after being admitted to practice in the United States Court of China continued the practice of my profession until 1951 when I was arrested and held by the Chinese Communists on false and trumped-up charges of being an American spy. During the period that I practicel law, I spent about 14 years as municipal advocate and legal adviser to the municipal council of the International Settlement at Shanghai. During World War II, I was interned by the Japanese for about 2 years and 8 months. Upon my release from internment in October 1945, I discovered the cost of my public service. To quote from my articles in the Saturday Evening Post entitled, "I Came Back From a Red Death Cell": "I was flat broke. My job as municipal advocate had gone up in smoke. And my house on Columbia Circle was empty. The Japanese had used it for a time as a police station but decided to move, and moved out with all my possessions. As the Chinese proverb goes: 'I t'iao k'u, i t'iao sheng (I have only a pair of pants and a string to hold them up)."

In addition to all this, I discovered that the United States by a treaty with China had relinquished all of its rights in the International Settlement at Shanghai to the Nationalist Government with the understanding that the Nationalist Government would undertake to pay all of the obligations of that settlement. The Nationalist Government took over the assets and to this day has not paid the liabilities, including my retirement benefits.

I returned to the United States hoping that some expeditious steps would be taken to protect my interests and those of other Americans similarly situated and that we would be compensated for our just war losses. My hopes or rather our hopes in this respect were not raised by the ratification of the treaty of peace with Japan whereunder the United States waived the war damage claims of Americans sustained in China.

At the time the treaty was before the Senate for ratification, Secretary Dulles referred to this waiver of claims and stated that it would be left to the Congress to provide for adequate compensation for the claimants.

This whole subject of the payment of war claims was exhaustively studied by the War Claims Commission, which submitted its excellent and comprehensive report to the Congress on January 16, 1953, and was ordered printed by this committee, as House Document 67, 83d Congress, 1st session. This committee, having initiated the legislation which provided for the report, need not be reminded that the War Claims Commission recommended the passage of legislation to provide for compensation for these claims which had been waived by treaty.

There has now been introduced H. R. 10549, which is before your subcommittee today. It provides that measure of relief, by way of compensation for claims, to which we believe we are justly entitled, and in behalf of myself and the many others similarly situated I urge that you give it your favorable consideration, at the earliest possible date.

There are before this subcommittee a number of bills which have for their purposes-in one manner or another-the return to our former enemies of properties which had been vested by the United States during the war. Other committees consider the subject of foreign aid programs, on which the American taxpayer has spent billions of dollars for the last 9 years-with the end to foreign aid not yet in sight. I wish to voice no complaint against those measures, because as the son of good missionary parents I respect the proverb "It is more blessed to give than to receive." But I cannot refrain from recalling the equally established adage "charity begins at home."

The passage of H. R. 10549 would not be an act of charity. It would be the belated recognition of our just claims, on which we are morally entitled to prompt payment.

Mr. WEINER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. KLEIN. The committee will adjourn until tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, at which time Mr. McCormack will testify, as well as Mr. Huddleston, with reference to his bill.

If you care to, Mr. Wiener, if we have time tomorrow, if there is anything further that you want to bring out in your statement, I will permit you to do so.

Mr. WIENER. Thank you.

(Thereupon, at 12:05 p. m., the committee was recessed, to reconvene at 10 a. m., Thursday, June 28, 1956.)

WAR CLAIMS AND RETURN OF ENEMY ASSETS

THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1956

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE AND FINANCE OF THE

HOUSE INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE COMMITTEE,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a. m., in room 1435, New House Office Building, the Honorable Arthur G. Klein (chairman of the subcommittee), presiding.

Mr. KLEIN. The committee will come to order.

The first bill for consideration of the committee this morning is H. R. 6586, a copy of which we will insert into the record at this point. (The bill, H. R. 6586, is as follows:)

[H. R. 6586, 84th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To amend section 7 of the War Claims Act of 1948, with respect to claims of certain religious organizations functioning in the Philippine Islands

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, effective as of August 1, 1955, section 7 of the War Claims Act of 1948, as amended, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following subsection:

"(h) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section relating to eligibility, and subsection (f) relating to the time within which claims must be filed, adjudicated, and paid, the Commission is authorized to adjudicate and provide for the payment of any claim filed by any religious organization functioning in the Philippine Islands for reimbursement of expenditures incurred or for payment of the fair value of supplies used by such organization for the purpose of furnishing shelter, food, clothing, hospitalization, medicines, and medical services and other relief in the Philippines to members of the Armed Forces of the United States or to civilian American citizens (as defined in section 5) at any time subsequent to December 6, 1941, and before August 15, 1945, and to adjudicate and provide for payment of any claim by any religious organization functioning in the Philippine Islands for the loss and damage sustained as a consequence of the war to its schools, colleges, universities, scientific observatories, hospitals, dispensaries, orphanages, and other property or facilities connected with its educational, medical, or welfare work in the Philippine Islands: Provided, That such religious organization (1) is of the same denomination as a religious organization functioning in the United States; (2) has filed its claim in the Commission on or before October 1, 1952; (3) has received an award for war damages from the Philippine War Damage Commission under the provisions of the Philippine Rehabilitation Act of 1946, as amended; (4) has not previously received an award from the Commission under section 7; (5) shall petition the Commission within thirty days from the effective date hereof for a rehearing and adjudication of its claim: And provided further, That (6) the Commission shall adjudicate all claims filed under this subsection not later than December 31, 1955, and shall certify such claims as may be allowed to the Secretary of the Treasury for payment out of the War Claims Fund established by section 13 of this Act; (7) all payments shall be made to an organization or individual in the United States designated by the claimant, and

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