ORDERED TO CLOSE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24636, 18 June 1941, Page 5

ORDERED TO CLOSE

GERMAN CONCERNS CONSULATES INCLUDED ACTION TAKEN BY AMERICA WASHINGTON, June 16. The State Department has ordered the closing of all German Consulates in the limited States, the German Library of Information, railway and tourist bureaux, and the Transocean News Agency, and the removal of all German nationals connected with those agencies. The Assistant Secretary of State, Mr Sumner Welles, said the order closing the consulates did not imply a break of diplomatic relations, and the German diplomatic staff at Washington was not affected. * The State Department issued a Note that it had come to the knowledge of the Government that agencies of the German Reich in this country, including German consular establishments, had been engaged in activities wholly outside the scope of thsir legitimate duties. These activities had been of an improper and unwarranted character. They rendered the continued presence in the United States of those agencies and the consular establishments inimical to the welfare of this country. One hundred and fifty-two Germans with consular status and 42 employees of the Library of Information will be subject to expulsion. Police were detailed to guard the German Consulate in New York, when a crowd gathered following publication of the order.

The Stata Department Note called for the closing of all German Consulates and agencies by July 10, and directed that all'German Consular officers, agents, clerks, and employees thsreof of German nationality should be removed from American territory. A CHECK ON ALIENS AUTHORITY FOR PRESIDENT WASHINGTON, (Rec. 0.30 a.m.) June 17. The State Department advised the Senate Judiciary Committee that more persons were now engaged in espionage and subversive activities in the United States than during 1914-18; therefore, legislation giving the President authority over the entry or departure of aliens was desirable in the interest of national defence.