HANDS OFF ALLIED COLONIES IN WEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1940, Page 6

HANDS OFF ALLIED COLONIES IN WEST.

AMERICA'S STAND. Hitler And Mussolini Told To Keep Out. MONROE DOCTRINE.; |K>ltfCY. (Received noon.) WASHINGTON, June 19.

The United States Government has warned Italy and Germany to keep their hands off British, French arid Dutch possessions in the western hemisphere, while the State Department proposed an emergency meeting of the 21 American Republics to discuss the new problems arising from the war. Mr. Sumner Welles, Under-Secretary for State, said Notes proposing . a Pan- ■ American conference were delivered on Monday. ■'■' Simultaneously, the United States envoys at Berlin and Rome delivered the following statement: "The Government of the United States has been informed that the Government of France has requested of the German Government terms for an armistice. The Government of the United States feels that it is desirable, in order to avoid any possible misunderstanding, to inform your Excellency that, in accordance with its traditional policy relating to the Western Hemisphere, the United States would not recognise any transfer and would not acquiesce in any attempt at the transfer of any geographic region in the Western Hemisphere from one non-American Power to another nonAmerican Power." In informed circles it is believed the statement is broad enough to. include Canada and Greenland. It is reliably stated in Rome that the United States, invoking the Monroe Doctrine, warned Italy that it would not countenance Italian or German interference with British and French possessions in the Western Hemisphere.