Dear Friend:
At a meeting of our Executive Committee on June 24 our Secretary, Sidney L. Gulick, presented for our consideration paragraphs from many letters recently received regarding American Japanese relations.
In the light of this information the Committee reconsidered the policy which it has been following since the enactment of the Immigration Act of 1924. That law, you will recall, contains the section excluding “aliens ineligible for citizenship.” Our policy may be summed up as follows:
- Advocacy of the general principle that our immigration laws should be free from race discriminatory features. This would require that Japan be placed among the countries included in the quota allowances. This would admit annually as immigrants only one hundred fifty persons from Japan.
- Recognition of the futility and unwisdom of attempting to persuade the present Congress to make any change in the law. This has meant that our Committee has made no approaches to Congressmen or Senators on this matter, has not been carrying on a political campaign, and has not suggested to any one the need for a bill to change the law.
- Conduct of a quiet educational campaign by correspondence, seeking to discover those who sympathize with our [viewpoint] and to enroll them as members of our general committee. We now have nearly two thousand such members.
After a careful review of the situation, the Executive Committee felt that it would be wise to continue the policy thus far followed. But it was also felt desirable to secure if possible an expression of opinion on this policy from the members of our Advisory Council.[page 2]
We are accordingly enclosing for your information extracts of the letters referred to above, and would highly appreciate your mature thought in regard to this important matter.
Specifically, in your judgment is the above described policy the best one for us to follow?
Have you positive suggestions by which the work of this Committee may be more effective?
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