I HAVE CONFERRED with Secretary Abraham Ribicoff concerning the Secretary's on-the-spot investigation made at my direction on the problems of Cuban refugees in southern Florida.
     Secretary Ribicoff paid tribute to the refugees as a proud and resourceful people, whose courage and fortitude in the face of tragic disruption of their lives is magnificent.
     At the same time he reported that many of the refugees are now in serious need. They are living in extremely crowded quarters. Their resources have been exhausted or greatly depleted. Health and educational facilities are badly overtaxed.
     Secretary Ribicoff praised the exceptional efforts of voluntary welfare agencies, and State and local officials, to cope with the problems which have been created by the influx of refugees from oppression in their homeland. But he emphasized that the increasing number of refugees, and the personal circumstances of many of them, had become more onerous than private and local agencies could any longer bear alone.
     The Secretary said that immigration authorities estimated there are already 66,000 Cubans in this country, with at least 32,000 in the Miami area. To meet their minimal needs, the personal resources of many of the refugees have been exhausted and the available resources of voluntary and local authorities badly overstrained.
     As a result of the conference this afternoon, I have directed Secretary Ribicoff to take the following actions on behalf of the United States Government:
     1. Provide all possible assistance to voluntary relief agencies in providing daily necessities for many of the refugees, for resettling as many of them as possible, and for securing jobs for them.
     2. Obtain the assistance of both private and governmental agencies to provide useful employment opportunities for displaced Cubans, consistent with the overall employment situation prevailing in Florida.
     3. Provide supplemental funds for the resettlement of refugees in other areas, including transportation and adjustment costs to the new communities and for their eventual return to Miami for repatriation to their homeland as soon as that is again possible.
     4. Furnish financial assistance to meet basic maintenance requirements of needy Cuban refugee families in the Miami area as required in communities of resettlement, administered through Federal, State and local channels and based on standards used in the community involved.
     5. Provide for essential health services through the financial assistance program supplemented by child health, public health services, and other arrangements as needed.
     6. Furnish Federal assistance for local public school operating costs related to the unforeseen impact of Cuban refugee children on local teaching facilities.
     7. Initiate needed measures to augment training and educational opportunities for Cuban refugees, including physicians, teachers, and those with other professional backgrounds.
     8. Provide financial aid for the care and protection of unaccompanied children - the most defenseless and troubled group among the refugee population.
     9. Undertake a surplus food distribution program to be administered by the county welfare department, with surplus foods distributed by public and voluntary agencies to needy refugees.
     I hope that these measures will be understood as an immediate expression of the firm desire of the people of the United States to be of tangible assistance to the refugees until such time as better circumstances enable them to return to their permanent homes in health, in confidence, and with unimpaired pride.
     I am particularly interested in Secretary Ribicoff's proposal to make effective use of the faculty of the University of Havana, three-fourths of which are reported to be in south Florida at the present time. I have asked Secretary Ribicoff to examine how this community of scholars could be most effectively used to keep alive the cultural and liberal traditions for which this faculty has been justly noted. It represents a great inter-American asset, for their own people, for this country and for the entire hemisphere. I have asked the Secretary to report by March 1st on how these great intellectual abilities can be most effectively employed.
     I also want to commend Secretary Ribicoff for the constructive, humanitarian and immediate program proposed to assist the Cuban refugees. He said that he hoped that it would be considered first and foremost an essential humanitarian act by this country. But he also wanted it to indicate the resolve of this nation to help those in need who stand with the United States for personal freedom and against Communist penetration of the Western Hemisphere.
     I have consulted with Budget Director David E. Bell on means for financing these interim measures, which are expected to cost about 4 million dollars through the remainder of this fiscal year.

NOTE: Secretary Ribicoff's report on effective use of the faculty of the University of Havana, in the form of a letter to the President dated March 14, was released by the White House on March 17. See the President's letter of that date, Item 86.