Another part of this foundation is, of course, our continental transport system.  Some of our vital heavy materials come increasingly from Canada.  Indeed our relations with Canada, happily always close, involve more and more the unbreakable ties of strategic interdependence.  Both nations now need the St. Lawrence Seaway for security as well as for economic reasons.  I urge the Congress promptly to approve our participation in its construction.

Sixth, military and non-military measures for continental defense must be and are being strengthened.  In the current fiscal year we are allocating to these purposes an increasing portion of our effort, and in the next fiscal year we shall spend nearly a billion dollars more for them than in 1953.

An indispensable part of our continental security is our civil defense effort.  This will succeed only as we have the complete cooperation of State Governors, Mayors, and voluntary citizen groups.  With their help we can advance a cooperative program which, if an attack should come, would save many lives and lessen destruction.

The defense program recommended in the 1955 Budget is consistent with all of the considerations which I have just discussed.  It is based on a new military program unanimously recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and approved by me following consideration by the National Security Council.  This new program will make and keep America strong in an age of peril.  Nothing should bar its attainment.

The international and defense policies which I have outlined will enable us to negotiate from a position of strength as we hold our resolute course toward a peaceful world.  We now turn to matters which are normally characterized as domestic, well realizing that what we do abroad affects every problem at home—­from the amount of taxes to our very state of mind.

INTERNAL SECURITY

Under the standards established for the new employee security program, more than 2,200 employees have been separated from the Federal government.  Our national security demands that the investigation of new employees and the evaluation of derogatory information respecting present employees be expedited and concluded at the earliest possible date.  I shall recommend that the Congress provide additional funds where necessary to speed these important procedures.

From the special employment standards of the Federal government I turn now to a matter relating to American citizenship.  The subversive character of the Communist Party in the United States has been clearly demonstrated in many ways, including court proceedings.  We should recognize by law a fact that is plain to all thoughtful citizens-that we are dealing here with actions akin to treason—­that when a citizen knowingly participates in the Communist conspiracy he no longer holds allegiance to the United States.

I recommend that Congress enact legislation to provide that a citizen of the United States who is convicted in the courts of hereafter conspiring to advocate the overthrow of this government by force or violence be treated as having, by such act, renounced his allegiance to the United States and forfeited his United States citizenship.