ISLANDS IN ATLANTIC.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 127, 29 April 1940, Page 7

ISLANDS IN ATLANTIC.

AMERICANS URGE SEIZURE. DISCUSSIONS BY SENATORS. Received April 29, 11.25 a.m. WASHINGTON, April 28. ! In a forum broadcast to tlie nation, ! Senators Reynolds ami Lundeen urged and Senators Seliwellenback and Thomas opposed resolutions pending in Congress empowering the United States lo acquire possession of British, French and I !inch islands ill the Caribbean and the Atlantic. Senator Lundeen asserted that foreign poss’cssion of American land was | a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, i Senator Seliwellenback favoured the acquisition of strategic islands by honj olivable negotiation, and disagreed | with Senator hundoen's proposal lo use force if necessary, declaring: “I*or us i to take advantage of Britain’s and France’s temporary occupation in a war elsewhere would be sneaking, and. cause people everywhere to loathe and despise us.” Senalor Reynolds said Costa lliea’s Cocos Island and Ecuador’s Galapagos islands, also must be acquired to ensure the adequate defence of the United States’s interest. Senator Thomas insisted that unilateral action would destroy the good neighbour policy and impair the faith of the smaller Latin Americas in the United States. “If the doctrine of non-exploitation and non-interference is good for one, it ia good for all,” lie said. 1 In the neutrality debate in the United Stales Senate on October 14 last Senator Lundeen, citing the war debts, declared that Ihe word of Britain and France was no hotter than Hitler’s. “I do not believe any of these foreign diplomats,” be said, lie suggested that ihc United S-latcs should seize the British West Indies possessions * in payment of war debts, because they won ill* he useful lo the United States as naval and air bases.