“ARBITRARY ACTION”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1941, Page 4

“ARBITRARY ACTION”

OCCUPATION. OF ST. PIERRE & MIQUELON

UNITED STATES OFFICIAL CONDEMNATION. CANADA BEING CONSULTED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 25. Following on the announcement that a Free French naval force under the command of Vice-Admiral Emile Muselier made a surprise landing on Christinas Eve on the Vichy Government’s islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, off the south coast of Newfoundland, the American State Department in Washington announced: “Our preliminary reports show that the action taken by so-called Free French ships at the islands of St. "Pierre and Miquelon, just south of Newfoundland, was an arbitrary action, contrary to the agreement between all the parties concerned, and it was certainly done without the prior knowledge or consent of the United States Government. This Government has inquired of the Canadian Government as to the steps which that Government is prepared to take to restore the status quo of these islands.” The Department said that an announcement from Ottawa stated that the Canadian Government had no prior knowledge of the Free French action. The French Embassy spokesman in Washington said the Free French coup was a blunder of the first magnitude, worse than that of Dakar. He expressed gratification that the United States had promptly dissociated itself from the seizure.

St. Pierre and Miquelon are the largest islands of two small groups close to the south coast of Newfoundland. Their total area is 93 square miles and their population about 4200. They are mostly barren rocks, and unsuitjed for agriculture. The chief industry is cod fishing, and the islands are the centre of the French Atlantic fisheries.