Mr. FEIGHAN. Well, you understand, Mr. Chairman, I would just like the job to be done, and I feel that the job could very well be done by the subcommittee of which you are chairman, if it properly broadened its scope to include all nations and would not be restricted to Europe.

Mr. MONAGAN. Well, I hope when you read the hearings you may find that some of these points you mention have been gone into by the committee; that the committee has expressed an opinion on them, particularly the one on colonialism that you referred to, and that we have, within the limitations that we have worked under, done something in the cause of the captive nations.

Mr. FEIGHAN. Well, I have confidence in your committee. I just hope you will have the time, jurisdiction, staff, and support to direct a full and thorough inquiry into the matters set forth here today.

Mr. MONAGAN. I feel the job has not been finished. Mr. Barry, would you like to ask some questions?

Mr. BARRY. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman, it is a pleasure to have you here, Mr. Feighan, and the area in which your statement has been centered is a direction in which this committee should proceed. I am wholeheartedly in favor of a close examination, both an historical one, and a factual one; first, historical for us to be fully acquainted with some of the things you have brought here for us and, secondly, factual, to find out just exactly where the situation is today, how we could give encouragement to the people that you have described who are really captives in just as large a sense as those who call themselves the captive nations, referring to the outside group.

Mr. FEIGHAN. You mean outside the confines of the U.S.S.R.? Mr. BARRY. Yes; so I certainly commend you for this statement. I think it is a comprehensive statement, and it points to the direction in which our chairman could proceed. I think this is important.

Mr. FEIGHAN. I appreciate your kind remarks, and I agree with them.

Mr. BARRY. I will say this to you: Whether or not during this year in the Congress, I think this statement on the record that you have made will be here for the next Congress, and I know that if you and I have anything to do with it next year, we will see to it that this gets before every member of this committee, because there is no reason why the representatives of these nations now living here couldn't appear here and testify.

Mr. MONAGAN. That, of course, will be a decision for the full committee. We appreciate your coming here, Mr. Feighan. Thank you for your statement which, of course, will be a part of the hearings. Mr. FEIGHAN. Thank you very kindly.

(Whereupon, at 2:49 p.m., the committee adjourned.)

APPENDIX

(The following statements have been submitted for inclusion in the record :)

STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK J. BECKER, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK, BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

I would like to add a brief word in respect to the captive nations behind the Iron Curtain of Soviet communism or under the control of communism in other parts of the world.

It is my firm conviction that the status of the captive nations, tragic as it is, cannot be remedied by the United States and the rest of the free world doing business with the Communist nations or giving food commodities to the Soviet Union or Red China, or even to the captive nations themselves. To send materials of any kind into these countries only serves to permit the Communists and Communist-controlled governments to build up their military establishments, support larger military forces, and further devote their money and efforts to propaganda and to the subversion and infiltration of free nations.

I believe that a Special Committee on Captive Nations, composed of Members of the House, should be established for the purpose of examining and investigating every area concerning the captive nations, in order to determine and make recommendations as to how we can best bring about the freedom of the countries now under Communist control and domination. It is inevitable, if the leaders of the Kremlin continue to keep these countries and their people captive, that their youth will be so indoctrinated in the Communistic ideology and system that there will be little hope for the future of these nations.

I believe that such a committee, properly established to make a real study and investigation of this subject, could arrive at recommendations that would not only give hope to the captive nations but also provide constructive steps to be taken by our Government in cooperation with other governments of the free world to accomplish the desired results.

In line with the above I introduced on March 1, 1962, House Resolution 554, which would establish a committee to be known as the Special Committee on Captive Nations.

STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD P. BOLAND, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS, RE EUROPEAN CAPTIVE NATIONS, FEBRUARY 1, 1962

Mr. Chairman, I am happy to have an opportunity to present my views on a subject which remains central to the concerns of the free world-the unfortunate nations of Eastern Europe which are captives of the Soviet Union. These countries fell under Russian control when the Soviet Red army marched westward at the end of World War II, not because the peoples of Eastern Europe gave up their struggles for independence. In the case of Bulgaria, a Communistdominated "fatherland front" took over the country in 1944. A Communist republic was established 2 years later, under the leadership of the Communist Party leader, George Dimitrov, after an election in which the population was offered no alternatives. In Czechoslovakia a Communist government engineered a one-slate vote in 1948 giving their party total control and bringing to an end the ill-fated Czechoslovak Republic, which had been proclaimed 30 years earlier by Thomas G. Masaryk and Eduard Benes. The three Baltic states, Estonia. Latvia, and Lithuania, were similarly overrun by Soviet troops at the close of the Second World War, and these unfortunate nations were incorporated as "union republics" of the U.S.S.R. We celebrate the 44th anniversary of the declarations of independence of two of these countries this month-Lithuanian Independence Day is February 16 and Estonian Independence Day is February 24-and we may recall with some pride that the United States has never recognized the legitimacy of these Soviet acts of brute force.

In Hungary the popularly elected President was forced out by the Communists in 1947, and the Hungarian people demonstrated by their stirring rebellion 5 years ago that the regime which governs them today stays in power only with the support of Soviet arms. The executions of the leaders of the Hungarian revolt were condemned by unanimous votes of both Houses of Congress on June 19, 1958. The Polish people also showed the world in 1956 that they had not lost their spirit of independence during the 12 long years of Stalinist rule. Unfortunately, the relaxations and increased freedoms which were permitted the Polish people after Wladyslaw Gomulka took over the Communist Party leadership in October 1956 have only partially been allowed to continue, and the Gomulka government has increased its pressure on the Roman Catholic Church. Recently the Polish Marxist philosopher, Adam Schaff, deplored the lack of personal freedom in Poland and challenged the very basis of the Communist way of life in a series of searching essays. In Rumania a Soviet-type government was also forced on the people after the Second World War.

Perhaps the most dramatic evidence that the captive nations are controlled by the Soviet Union came to light last August 13, when Herr Ulbricht's regime in East Germany, probably the most ruthless police state of them all, unashamedly built a wall through the center of Berlin, thus proclaiming to the whole world that people will stay in the Communist "Utopia" only if they are locked in. At a time when many of the world's problems revolve around the question of colonialism, it is well to remember that the Soviet Union controls the largest colonial empire in the world. The Berlin wall is a reminder of this fact and a symbol of all the captive nations who are trapped behind it.

STATEMENT OF HON. EMILIO Q. DADDARIO, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT, BEFORE THE SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON CAPTIVE EUROPEAN NATIONS

Mr. Chairman, I wish to join with my colleagues in expressing concern for the oppressed people living under the heavy yoke of Communist rule. The United States has never given up hope that these captive nations will someday emerge from under the ominous shadow of the Hammer and Sickle, and join once more with the free nations of the world in the declaration of the basic freedoms which are so close to our hearts.

Poland is but one of the many Eastern European countries which surrendered involuntarily to the Red onslaught during the Second World War, but the people have continually refused to give in to the desires of their Russian oppressors, despite their use of coercive techniques before and after the war.

In the 18- to 20-month period from October 1939 to June 1941, over 1,692,000 Poles, Ukranians, and White Ruthenians were forcibly taken from their homes and deported to Russia. This occurred immediately after the Soviet Army had invaded Polish territory in September of 1939 on the premise of freeing the Polish people from the clutches of the Nazi militarists. Among those taken prisoner were 9,500 Polish Army officers.

The massacre at Katyn is an excellent illustration of the Russian attitude toward the value of human life. On April 13, 1943, the German radio announced : "It is reported from Smolensk that the local inhabitants have shown German officials where the Bolshevists have secretly carried out a mass execution, and where the NKVD executed 10,000 Polish officers." This announcement shocked and amazed the peoples of the world, but it caused even greater concern to the Polish exile government then residing in London. This discovery triggered a series of investigations which have failed to this day to establish official guilt of the executioners.

For 2 years prior to this horrible discovery the Soviet Government had denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of the exiled army officers to Polish and American officials. After the initial discovery, three investigations were carried out, one by an international team of physicians brought together by the German Government in 1943, a second by the Poles after the war, and a third under the aegis of the Soviet Government.

In addition, the subject was brought up again during the Nuremberg trials, but the Soviet prosecutor eventually dropped the accusation, since he could not prove that the mass murders had been carried out by the German armies. In 1952, a special congressional committee was set up to investigate this international mystery, and their efforts resulted in many volumes of testimony. They concluded that the NKVD was responsible for the deaths of 4,243 Polish Army officers and intellectuals in the spring of 1940. A report of their findings was sent on to each delegate to the United Nations. Since 1953, the atrocities of the war years have been kept from the eyes of public opinion.

While this story has been told before, it is my fervent hope that the Katyn massacre will not be forgotten by the people of the United States. Even though guilt has not been legally established by an international court, the results of the several investigations leave no doubt in my mind that the NKVD was wholly responsible for the deaths of these Polish soldiers. It is a burden on the conscience of the free world.

There is no need to relate to you the events occurring during the latter part of World War II and directly thereafter, which finally led to the expulsion of the legitimate government of the Polish people. There is reason to believe that Poland would not be in its present state of enslavement if the Polish Army core had not been eliminated. This massacre was designed to eliminate the military and intellectual leadership which subsequently would have blocked Russia's plans for the complete communization of Poland. It left the Polish state without sufficient leadership and the power to resist, and insured the Russian conquest.

The bravery of the Polish people in resisting the Communist evil continues to shine through the blackness of the Iron Curtain. The events at Katyn should remain embedded in the minds of U.S. citizens as an example of Soviet treachery and deceit. We must continue to support the cause of freedom. It depends a great deal upon the American people. Let us keep the events at Katyn in mind in urging greater awareness of the status of once-free nations in Eastern Europe.

STATEMENT BY HON. JOHN H. DENT, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE CAPTIVE NATIONS

A year ago the Communist despots, by building the Berlin wall, made a public confession of the bankruptcy of their system. With it they split in two the heart of a great free city and plugged the last remaining hole in their version of the great wall which stretches from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea and keeps in Red bondage millions of human beings. Behind this wall nine nations, some of them small and nonimposing amidst the nations of the world, but once free and proud of their individual existence and heritage, suffer their Babylonian captivity-Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on the shores of the windswept Baltic Sea, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary in the heart of Eastern Europe, Rumania and Bulgaria on the Black Sea, and Albania on the sunny Adriatic.

The Iron Curtain we call it. And indeed a true Iron Curtain it is with its steel barricades and cement blocks, miles and miles of barbed wire and minefields, watchtowers and armed guards. A monstrous modern day perversion of the Great Chinese Wall, it is not intended to protect the riches of the land from the invading barbarian, but to prevent the people behind it from escaping the oppression of religious persecution, intellectual slavery, and economic misery. Attempting to eradicate all the traditional transcendental values of the Western heritage of which these captive nations have always been proud bearers, Communist propagandists loudly proclaim their material paradise on earth which is to be the fruit of their system. Yet, the results of their rule in the economic realm, the very realm in which they pride themselves in having the panacea leading to the millennium, belie their alluring talk. Countless thousands of inhabitants of the Communist earthly "paradise" have, by escaping it, borne witness that the "paradise" is indeed much closer to hell.

Before the upheaval wrought upon Eastern Europe by the Second World War and its aftermath, the economic conditions of the nine captive nations ranged from modest to fairly well off. Most of them were predominantly agricultural, with Czechoslovakia and Poland having achieved a considerable degree of industrialization. With the industriousness and frugality of the populations, aided often by the inflow of foreign investment funds, they were slowly but firmly on their way toward the goal of all-around economic development. There was no ostentatious wealth, nor was there abject poverty.