At Havana, capital of the Republic of Cuba, the foreign ministers of the 21 American republics have just met as the Pan American Conference. Economic problems were prominent on the agenda, but more important was what Mr. Cordell Hull described as "the threat to our security arising from activities directed from outside our hemisphere; an attempt to acquire domination of the Americas by foreign governments." Everyone knew that the U.S.A.'s Secretary of State was referring to the Nazis, and unanimous approval was given to the Act of Havana, one of whose clauses stated that no transfers of sovereignty of colonies of non-American countries in the Western hemisphere would be recognized or accepted. Moreover, steps might be taken by Pan-American countries to occupy such colonies as a temporary defence measure.

August 1940