WW2 | Indianapolis Times: U.S. ARMY ON GUARD – Dutch Bauxite Mines
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (A.A.P.)

At the invitation of the Netherlands Government in London, the United States Government has agreed to send an army contingent to protect the bauxite mines in Surinam (Dutch Guiana).
Brazil has also agreed to watch the frontier zone.
Surinam supplies upwards of 60 percent of the requirements of the American aluminium industry.
Senator Tom Connally, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressing approval of the Surinam decision, said:
“I think we shall have to take over Martinique and French Guiana also if the Vichy Government continues to succumb to Nazi influence.”
It was officially stated by the White House today that the Surinam bauxite mines were vital to the defence of the Western Hemisphere and the nations resisting aggression.
“It is, therefore, necessary that the safety of these mines be as completely assured as present conditions demand,”
the statement added.
“Normally, the Netherlands Government would draw on the Netherlands East Indies forces to strengthen the defences of Guiana, but in view of the present situation in the southwestern Pacific, it is thought inadvisable to follow that course.”
STOPPING AGGRESSION
The Netherlands Prime Minister, Dr. Gerbrandy, broadcasting to the Dutch people, said:
“There is no doubt that co-operation between Britain, Australia, North America, and the Netherlands will be complete if there is aggression in the Pacific.
Co-operation in the West Indies — in Surinam — was necessary, because the insidious, treacherous tentacles of Hitler and his associates have reached out everywhere, especially in South America, to find weak spots.”
Dr. Gerbrandy added that the arrangement for American military co-operation in Surinam did not affect the sovereignty of the Netherlands.
Military co-operation would cease when there was no longer any danger.
The Panama Government announced yesterday that it had ordered the arrest of eleven friends of Señor Aníbal Ríos, Minister to Peru, on the eve of his return to Panama.
Those arrested had been accused of preparing a subversive movement.
This article appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 November 1941, under the headline “U.S. Army on Guard — Dutch Bauxite Mines.”