Office of the Historian

Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file

Minutes of a Cabinet Meeting, Held at the White House, 10:10 a.m.-12:20 p.m., July 9, 1954

confidential
Washington, July 9, 1954, 10:10 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
  • The following were present:
    • President Eisenhower
    • Vice President Nixon
    • Sec. Dulles, and his Administrator, Bureau of Security, Consular Affairs and Personnel, Mr. Scott McLeod
    • Sec. Humphrey
    • Deputy Sec. of Defense Anderson (for Sec. Wilson)
    • Mr. Brownell
    • Mr. Summerfield
    • Sec. McKay
    • Sec. Benson
    • Sec. Weeks
    • Under Sec. of HEW Nelson Rockefeller (for Sec. Hobby)
    • Director Hughes
    • Dr. Flemming
    • Gov. Stassen
    • Chairman Young
    • Amb. Lodge
    • Dr. Arthur Burns
    • Gov. Adams
    • Gen. Persons
    • Mr. Rabb
    • Mr. Shanley
    • Dr. Hauge
    • Mr. Martin

[Here follow a report by the Secretary of State and discussion of various pending foreign policy issues.]

Refugee Relief Program—Mr. Scott McLeod, of the State Department Bureau of Security, Consular Affairs and Personnel, presented a series of charts showing the development and status of the State Department program for carrying out the Emergency Immigration Program authorized in August, 1953. He noted delays occasioned by the need for staffing the program, by the slowness of foreign countries in working out satisfactory agreements and documentation, [Page 1638] and he announced that the program was now ready to move into high gear. In response to a query from the President, he stated that the State Department had a program ready for fostering the flow of assurances from US citizens.

Mr. McLeod requested assistance in securing amendment to the basic Act in order to give a greater option for ethnic groups within any given nationality and also in regard to orphans. Secretary Dulles commented on the legal obstacles imposed by the assurances required by law.1 The President commented on his dislike of having detailed administrative instructions written into law, thus eliminating Executive discretion, and his own wonder as to where Americans would be now if their forefathers had been required to obtain such assurances.

[Here follows a report by Arthur Burns, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, on a suggested increase in the minimum wage.]

  1. Reference is to the requirement that those admitted under the Refugee Relief Act possess specific assurances of jobs and housing from their U.S. citizen sponsors.↩