Mr. KASTENMEIER. Our last witness on the first panel this morning is Francis E. Bradley, who is assistant headmaster of the George School, at Newtown, PA. Mr. Bradley. STATEMENT OF FRANCIS E. BRADLEY, ASSISTANT HEADMASTER OF GEORGE SCHOOL, NEWTOWN, PA Mr. BRADLEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. George School is a Quaker boarding school in Newtown, PA. Yesterday, a Cuban Quaker, Loida Catala Garrido, finished a week-long visit to George School. Through our invitation Olida was able to visit three other schools where she talked to hundreds of students about her life and the lives of Quakers in Cuba. After visiting with her son in New York, whom she hasn't seen in 28 years, she will return to Cuba. Several of us at George School have worked since 1977 to establish relationships with the Cuban Quakers and with officials of the Cuban Government that would enable us to exchange visits between George School and the Cuban Quaker community. Now we can bring Cuban Quakers like Loida to George School, but we can't take our children there. In 1982, after establishing a relationship of confidence between the Cuban Government officials and Cuban Quakers, we were finally able to organize a trip for our students and faculty to visit the Cuban Quakers and non-Quaker Cuban students. Approximately 1 month before we were to visit, our Government, the U.S. Government, instituted a ban on spending dollars in Cuba, which made our trip legally impossible. With the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union we were granted a temporary restraining order which enabled us to proceed with our trip to Cuba. The case ultimately ended in the Supreme Court case of Regan v. Wald, which we lost. Our efforts to promote contacts with Cubans are difficult for many to understand, but the efforts are clearly consistent with the basic precept of quakerism, that there is that of God in every human being. If there is that of God in every human being, it is important that we educate our students to seek that of God in all human beings, whether they be poor or rich, black or white, liberal or conservative, Israeli or Palestinian, Communist or capitalist, Democrat or Republican. Our children won't learn that there is that of God in all people if they are denied the opportunity to interact on a personal level with people perceived as their enemies. We don't want them to learn this from books; that's not enough. We want them to talk, share meals, sing, dance, play sports. There is no film, no book, no intellectual or emotional substitute for meeting personally with people to learn of their humanity. We don't want to do this only with the upper middle classes in Mexico and France and Germany. We want our students to meet with Russians and Chinese, with Vietnamese and Hungarians, with Nicaraguans and, yes, even with Cubans. The current Treasury Department regulation limits our ability to educate our children according to the traditions of the Religious So ciety of Friends. This restriction also limits the opportunities for Cuban people of all ages and faiths to meet and share ideas with Americans of greatly different values. It is important for Cubans to see North Americans as fragile, caring human beings rather than as militaristic ogres. It is important for them to be exposed to our values, our music, our clothes, our wealth, and yes, even our children. It is easy for our children to have experiences with conflict and hate. But experiences in peacemaking are precious and need to be nurtured, not inhibited. We, too, want our children to be all they can be. We want them in their formative years to experience the joy and exhilaration that peacemaking activities can bring. Children with these experiences will not only perpetuate the values of the Society of Friends, but they will be invaluable to this country. My students regularly ask questions about the Treasury Department regulations which I have difficulty answering. Here are some of my paraphrased versions of their questions: If the President of the United States is encouraging student and personal exchanges with citizens in the Soviet Union, "the evil empire," why does he prohibit us from visiting the so-called "pawn" in the empire? Aren't dollars spent in the Soviet Union as damaging to U.S. interests as dollars spent in Cuba? How can we subsidize the sale of wheat to the Soviet Union with our tax money and still prohibit children from spending money to visit churches in Cuba? Why can Canadians, Mexicans, Frenchman, and Spaniards visit Cuba when we can't? Are they freer than we are? Could someone jailed as a result of violating the Treasury restrictions be called a political prisoner? I am sure our Government can measure the amount of hard currency we're depriving the Cubans, but because religious liberty isn't always measurable in dollars and cents, I can't tell you the monetary value of depriving our children of the opportunity to visit Cuban children and Quaker churches. But it is my sense that our laws are more precious than the dollars we are depriving the Cubans. Thank you. Mr. KASTENMEIER. Thank you for that eloquent statement, Mr. Bradley. [The prepared statement of Mr. Bradley follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF FRANCIS E. BRADLEY ASSISTANT HEADMASTER OF GEORGE SCHOOL NEWTOWN, PA I am the Assistant Headmaster of George School, a Quaker Boarding School in Newtown, Pennsylvania. I have been asked to speak to you about my experiences with the Treasury Department's currency restrictions, which led to my being a plaintiff in the Regan vs. Wald case. I wish to sincerely thank you for this opportunity. In 1982, after years of work, several of us at George School had finally arranged to take students and teachers from several Quaker schools to Cuba. The purpose of our trip was to visit schools, factories, churches, and particularly to visit our fellow Quakers in a relatively remote area of Eastern Cuba. Our trip was planned for early June 1982. In April, as we were making our final plans, restrictions were put in place by the U.S. Government which limited travel to Cuba. When I realized the Treasury Department was empowered to grant specific licenses permitting others to spend money in Cuba, I immediately applied for a license. I thought the religious nature of our trip made it likely that we would receive the appropriate permission. Our request for a license was denied. Because so many of us had put so many years of work into this trip we decided to make a major effort to get the Treasury Department to reconsider their decision. We got the headmasters of five Quaker schools, two independent school lobbying organizations, five congressmen, and two senators to write - 2 The following is an exerpt from the response we received from the Treasury Department: Although you describe the trip as having I understand the rationale, most denials of freedom have a rationale, but because it had a rationale didn't mean it was either logical, correct, moral, or consistent with American traditions. I called the American Civil Liberties Union and explained our problem. The ACLU was able to get us a temporary restraining order from a Federal Court that enabled us to legally travel to Cuba and spend money. As a simple citizen with little political or economic leverage it was reassuring to find an organization like the ACLU which was interested in helping to protect our rights. While we were in the air flying to Miami the Treasury Department went back into court to try to stop our trip. Fortunately, the last minute attempt by the Treasury Department was not successful. - 3 In spite of all the difficulties, our trip went very well. We visited Cuban schools, museums, factories and churches. Of course the most moving experience for us was the time we spent with the Quakers in Holguin Province, in Eastern Cuba. The trip was so successful we decided to improve upon it and to try again in the summer of 1983. We again applied for a specific license and we were again denied that license by the Treasury Department. Since the Treasury Department's regulations permit journalists to spend money in Cuba without a specific license, and recognizing it would probably be difficult to get another Federal Court order, all the participants agreed to write articles in a variety of magazines and journals. Being unaware of an official definition of "a journalist" we assumed we were journalists and therefore, we did not need a specific license to travel to Cuba. Because of our fear that the U.S. Government might not consider us journalists, and our fear of possible prosecution, we decided to take only adults on the trip. Our 1983 trip provided us with the opportunity to visit five Quaker Meetings in Holguin, Velasco, Puerto Padre, Banes and Gibara. It would be hard to describe the emotion associated with our visit to each Quaker Meetinghouse. Except for a few infrequent visits, the Cuban Quakers have been isolated from North American Quakers for more than 20 years. Many tears were shed by Cuban Quakers when we appeared in their Meetinghouses. The visits were also emotional for us because we didn't know if our efforts to visit the Cuban Quakers would lead to our prosecution in the United States. Upon our return, George School invited a Cuban Quaker Pastor and the Cuban official, who accompanied us on our Cuban trip, to visit George School during the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's 1984 gathering. The invitation seemed like an appropriate way to reciprocate to the Quakers for their hospitality and to the Cuban Government Agency for the extraordinary efforts they made to make our visit possible. They were both denied visas by the |