A COMMON FRONT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24817, 17 January 1942, Page 7

A COMMON FRONT

AMERICAN REPUBLICS STAND AGAINST AGGRESSORS MINISTERS CONFERRING RIO DE JANEIRO, (Rec. 10 p.m.) Jan. 15. The President of Brazil, Dr Vargas, opened the conference of Foreign Ministers of 21 American republics with a call for the most solid and powerful alliance of free and sovereign nations that history and humanity had ever known.

: “We are gathered to reaffirm our unanimous solidarity to a nation so i wantonly attacked and to agree with prudence to all the decisions necessary for the security and protection of our peoples. We will measure no 1 sacrifices on behalf of collective dej fence and carry out all the things dej manded by force of circumstances. No measures will be left untaken to prevent ostensible enemies within our gates from shielding themselves and causing damage or endangering the security of the Americas.” ■ The United States Under-secretary of State, Mr Sumner Welles, urged the non-belligerent western hemisphere nations to unite in a common front against the Axis aggressors. “It is of the utmost importance,” he said, “to rid this hemisphere of all diplomatic, business, financial, and trade transactions from which the Axis might benefit. Axis Consular agents, taking advantage of diplomatic immunity, are sending their capitals all possible information about ship movements and defence preparations in the Americas. The pre-eminent issue is solely that those republics engaged in war shall not be dealt a deadly thrust by Axis agents enjoying the hospitality of the American republics. The continued presence of Axis agents within the western hemisphere constitutes a direct danger to the national defence of the republics engaged in war. The United States is prepared to render financial and technical assistance where needed to alleviate injury to the domestic economy of any American republic which results from curbing . alien economic activities inimical to common defence. The United States is ready to arrange for the acquisition of supplies of basic and strategic materials and to co-oper-ate helpfully in every possible way. Pan-American unity against the Axis is imperative, not only for the defence of the western hemisphere itself, but also that the American republics, joined as one, may prove to be a potent factor in shaping the future of the world to come.”