FROZEN AXIS ASSETS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24635, 17 June 1941, Page 5

FROZEN AXIS ASSETS

THE PRESIDENT’S ORDER HUGE AMOUNT INVOLVED ' RUGBY. June 15. President Roosevelt’s order to freeze the enemy’s United States assets will involve assets estimated at nearly £1,000,000,000. This will have the effect of depriving Germany and Italy of access to free exchange, and the opinion is expressed that this will deprive them of the means whereby they can pay for sabotage and espionage undermining the security of the western hemisphere. , ' ' ... Mr Roosevelt’s order, which has been taken in view of the unlimited national emergency recently declared by the President, is the logical consequence of an earlier decision to freeze United States assets in some 1 of the occupied countries. Earlier orders affected the assets of 14 countries, their estimated total value being about £1,125,000,000. The countries covered by the extension of the order to all occupied countries are Albania, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Danzig, and Poland. ■ A special communique issued in Rome announces that Italy has decided to retaliate against the American action freezing her assets and has ordered a census of American property and goods throughout Italy with a view to similar action.