Volume 55
Public Law 77–49
Affirming and approving nonrecognition of the transfer of any geographic region in this hemisphere from one non-American power to another non-American power, and providing for consultation with other American republics in the event that such transfer should appear likely.
Approved April 10, 1941
Statutory text
JOINT RESOLUTION
Affirming and approving nonrecognition of the transfer of any geographic region in this hemisphere from one non-American power to another non-American power, and providing for consultation with other American republics in the event that such transfer should appear likely.
Whereas our traditional policy has been to consider any attempt on
Preamble.
the part of non-American powers to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to the peace and safety not only of this country but of the other American republics; and
Whereas the American republics agreed at the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace held in Buenos Aires in 1936 and at the Eighth International Conference of American
States held in Lima in 1938 to consult with one another in the event that the peace, security, or territorial integrity of any American republic should be threatened; and
Whereas the Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American Republics at Panama October 3, 1939, resolved “That in case any geographic region of America subject to the jurisdiction of any non-American state should be obliged to change its sovereignty and there should result therefrom a danger to the security of the American Continent, a consultative meeting such as the one now being held will be convoked with the urgency that the case may require”: Therefore be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That the United States
Nonrecognition of certain transfers of regions of this hemisphere.
would not recognize any transfer, and would not acquiesce in any attempt to transfer, any geographic region of this hemisphere from one non-American power to another non-American power; and
That if such transfer or attempt to transfer should appear
Consultations if transfer appears likely.
likely, the United States shall, in addition to other measures, immediately consult with the other American republics to determine upon the steps which should be taken to safeguard their common interests.
Approved, April 10, 1941.