Intervals of totally nonnegative matrices

Totally nonnegative matrices, i.e., matrices having all their minors nonnegative, and matrix intervals with respect to the checkerboard ordering are considered. It is proven that if the two bound matrices of such a matrix interval are nonsingular and totally nonnegative (and in addition all their zero minors are identical) then all matrices from this interval are also nonsingular and totally nonnegative (with identical zero minors).