The Swedish-Norwegian Union Crisis Part 11

If, in the course of the negotiations, another form could be found for arranging the affairs affecting the Union, always however with the preservation of the community in the management and charge of Foreign affairs, which is an indispensable condition to the existence of the Union, I herewith declare myself, prepared to take also this form into earnest consideration.

Mr. Berger, Chief of the Swedish Justice-Department, made the following statement:

In connection with what your Royal Highness has been pleased to declare and while emphasizing the desirability of opening further negotiations as to arranging the Union affairs, I recommend in all humility to request in persuance of -- 5 of the Act of Union, a report from the Norwegian Government as to the proposition of opening such negotiations.

What the president of the Justice-Department had thus stated and recommended, was endorsed by the other members of the Swedish Cabinet Council.

The Norwegian section of the Cabinet Council stated that, at present, it did not find any reason to give its opinion on the reality of the matter, but, with reference to -- 15 of the Norwegian Const.i.tution and to -- 5 of the Act of Union, it confined itself in recommending the request of a report from the Norwegian Government.

His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince Regent was graciously pleased to decree that the Norwegian Government's report of the matter should be requested.

13.

Motion on the Union question in the First Chamber of the Swedish Riksdag.

According to notification made in the Post-och Inrikes Tidningar of April 6, this year, the Crown-Prince Regent has on the 5th of the same month in Joint Swedish and Norwegian Cabinet Council made the following declaration:

Whereas, through the exhortation thus addressed by the Crown-Prince Regent to the Cabinet Councils of the United Kingdoms, a suggestion of new negotiations has been made, which ought to be able to lead to such a solution of the Union affairs as may be approved of by both peoples, and whereas the present state of things seems to occasion the Riksdag to give already its opinion on the matter, we move,

that the Riksdag, in an address to His Majesty, may announce its support of the declaration made by the Crown-Prince Regent in Joint Swedish and Norwegian Cabinet Council on April 5th this year with a view to bring about negotiations between the Swedish and Norwegian Governments concerning, a new arrangement of the Union affairs.

Stockholm, April 12, 1905.

_Gustaf Ax. Berg._ _Gottfrid Billing._ _Gustaf Bjorlin._ _Hj. Palmstierna._ _Fredrik Pettersson._ _Gust. Tamm._ _R. Tornebladh._ _Wilh. Wallden._

14.

Motion on the Union question in the Second Chamber of the Swedish Riksdag.

The declaration made by the Crown-Prince Regent in Joint Cabinet Council of the 5th inst. and published the day after in the Post-och Inrikes Tidningar, has given great satisfaction to us and certainly also to other friends of the Union, to whom the relation arisen between the sister countries after the failure of the consular negotiations, has caused a great deal of anxiety. That new negotiations if brought about, will have a decisive influence on the future of the Union, is obvious.

The worth of the Union, as well as the prospect of maintaining it for a considerable time to come, depend upon the two peoples voluntary adherence to it in the conviction that the Union involves advantages well worth of those restrictions in each peoples absolute right of self determination as are necessarily conditioned by it. Again, the failure of the negotiations would evidently produce among the two peoples a general and settled opinion that an arrangement satisfactory to both cannot be found within the Union, and such a conviction is sure to undermine its existence.

Because of this, it proves to be of importance for the Riksdag not to pa.s.s in silence the suggestion of negotiations given in the above-mentioned declaration, but to second it, if found satisfactory.

It seems to us that the Riksdag should not hesitate to take the latter alternative, since the declaration, while holding in wiew the necessary communion in the management of Foreign affairs and in the two peoples'

control of it, at the same time in consideration of its latter portion, has the bearing that it should not preclude the possibility to attain a solution satisfactory to both peoples.

On that account we beg leave to move:

that the Riksdag, in an address to His Majesty, may announce its support of the declaration made by the Crown-Prince Regent in Joint Swedish and Norwegian Cabinet Council on April 5th this year with a view to bring about negotiations between the Swedish and Norwegian Governments concerning a new arrangement of the Union affairs.

Stockholm, April 12, 1905.

_Carl Persson._ _Hans Andersson._ _Sixten von Friesen._ _Ernst Lindblad._ _D. Persson i Tallberg._ _K. H. Gez. von Scheele._ _T. Zetterstrand._

15.

The Norwegian Governments' report of April 17th 1905.

His Excellency Michelsen, Prime Minister, and Chief of the Justice-Department, has in all humility made the following statement:

In making this matter the subject of a humble report the Department desires to state: As is well known the Norwegian people have made a unanimous demand for the establishment of a separate Norwegian Consular service and have with equal unanimity a.s.serted that the decision of this matter, as lying outside the community established between the countries through the Act of Union, should be reserved to the Norwegian const.i.tutional authorities. For the treatement of this matter the Norwegian Storthing has appointed a special Committee and in the immediate future, this committee will prepare a motion that, in the present sitting of the Storthing, a bill be to pa.s.sed with regard to the establishment of a separate Consular service.

Inasmuch as the scheme propounded in Joint Cabinet Council should be based on the supposition that the further advancement of the Consular question should, for the present, be deferred Norway's approval of such a supposition would, in the opinion of the Department be equivalent to giving up of the Norwegian people's unanimous desire to now see a just right carried through which is due to Norway in her capacity of a Sovereign realm and is secured in her Const.i.tution, and for a reform requested with c.u.mulative force by the development and the conditions of industry, instead of entering into negotiations between the countries, which, after renewed experience, may unfortunately be apprehended to prove fruitless or at best, to delay the realisation of the matter.

For there is no denying the fact that the scheme for negotiations now propounded is nothing new, but that similar schemes in the earlier history of the Union have repeatedly been tried in vain. The three Committees affecting the Union and made up of Norwegian and Swedish men, that in the past century, after previous treatment in 1844, in 1867, and in 1898 propounded schemes for new regulations concerning the mutual relations of the countries did not lead to any positive result. The report of the first Committee was in 1847 subject to a treatment on the part of the Norwegian Government, but was afterwards not favoured by the Swedish Government; the report of the second Committee, which did not give expression to Norway's equality in the Union was rejected by the vast majority of the Storthing in 1871 and in the third Committee no proposal of a future arrangement could obtain plurality among the Norwegian and the Swedish members.

With regard to the last-mentioned Committee we beg leave to draw particular attention to the fact, that all the Swedish members of the Committee certainly agreed upon founding the Union on the principle of parity and equality, inasmuch as they proposed that the Foreign affairs should be entrusted to the charge of a joint Foreign minister of Norwegian or Swedish nationality. But at the same time the two fractions wherein the Swedish members of the Committee were divided, proposed such an arrangement of the const.i.tutional responsibility not only for those members of the separate Cabinet Councils of the countries, who at the side of the Foreign Minister take part in the treatment of diplomatic affairs, but also for the Foreign Minister himself, so that no member of the Norwegian Committee could in this respect support any of the Swedish schemes. In addition to the establishment of a joint Foreign Minister office, all the Swedish members recommended an extension of the const.i.tutional community between the countries which no member of the Norwegian Committee could second and lastly, the scheme for a separate Foreign Office for each country which already was the expression of the opinion prevailing among the Norwegian people, could not gain any support from the Swedish side.

In this connection it should also be remembered that equally fruitless proved the negotiations about the arrangement of the ministerial Cabinet Council, carried on between the two Governments in 1885-86 and in 1890-91.

If thus the results of the above-mentioned efforts have been but little encouraging, this can, in a still higher degree, be said to have been the case with the negotiations just now terminated concerning questions connected with the establishment of a separate Consular service for each country. After these negotiations, brought about on Swedens initiative, had led to a preliminary agreement presupposing a separate Consular service for each country, subject to the home authority which each country decided for itself, and after this agreement had been approved of by the King and the Governments of the two countries in Joint Cabinet Council on December 21, 1903, the matter, as is well known, fell through owing to the so called bills of the same wording that were meant to regulate the relations between the separate Consular services on the one hand, and the Foreign Minister and the legations on the other hand. This negative result was attributed to the circ.u.mstance that from the Swedish side a number of demands were finally made and adhered to, which are partly considered as incongruous with the Const.i.tution of Norway and with our rights as a Sovereign realm, partly would exclude what had been presupposed in the preliminary agreements viz. that the Consuls of each country should be subject to that home authority which each country decided for itself. Through this, a deep disappointment has arisen in Norway which, if strengthened by new unsuccessful schemes, will imply the greatest danger to the good relations between the two peoples which in a far higher degree than agreements laid down in treatises or juridical forms are the basis of the concord and the strength of both peoples.

Under these circ.u.mstances the Department finds it necessary to dissuade from entering into new negotiations on the Union affairs ere a separate Norwegian Consular service has been established. Not until this has been done, will the confidence return which is the condition of any friendly and successful consideration of embarra.s.sing and delicate Union affairs, and the Department will then be able to recommend the opening of negotiations for arranging the management of Foreign affairs and of the diplomacy and about the present Union based on the Act of Union, and questions connected with this matter. But, if so, these negotiations must be carried on an entirely free basis with full recognition of the Sovereignity of each country without any reservation or restriction whatever and consequently also--in conformity with what occurred in 1898--embrace the arrangement proposed by the Norwegian side as to the establishment of a separate Norwegian and a separate Swedish Foreign Office administration in such forms as each country will consider necessary for its objects and interests. In harmony with this it should, besides, be agreed upon that, if also new negotiations should prove fruitless one must not return to _status quo_ so as to adhere to the present untenable state of Union affairs. There should be a binding presumption that the present state of things must not prevent either country from exercising its right of self-determination, but that instead each country can freely decide upon the future forms of its national existence. For not a coercive union but only the mutual confidence and feeling of solidarity of the free and independent nations can safeguard the future and the happiness of both peoples and the independence and integrity of their countries.

With reference to the above-mentioned statement endorsed in substance by the other members of the Cabinet Council, it is recommended in all humility:

that a copy of the present humble report made in Joint Cabinet Council on April 5th this year, concerning new negotiations affecting the Union may graciously be ordered to be delivered over to the Swedish Iustice-Department.

16.

Record of Justice-Departement affair held at Stockholm Palace on Tuesday the 25th of April, 1905 before His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince Regent in Joint Swedish and Norwegian Cabinet Council.

Mr Berger, Cabinet Minister and Chief of the Swedish Justice-Department gave, in all humility, a notice of the Norwegian Government's humble report in consequence of the question raised in Joint Cabinet Council on the 5th inst. vith regard to opening new negotiations concerning the arrangement of the Union question; this report is appended to this Protocol.

After the chief of Department had given an account of the contents of the report, His Excellency Ramstedt, Prime Minister made the following statement:

What in the Norwegian Governments report has been said about the reason why the latest negotiations, regarding the Union did not lead to any result, does not, in my opinion, now require a reply, but in this respect, I only refer to the Swedish Cabinet Council's declaration of January 30, 1905, appended to the Protocol made in Joint Cabinet Council on the 6th of February last.