12.
Record of Justice-Department affair held at Stockholm Palace, on
Wednesday the 5th of April 1905 before His Royal Highness the
Crown-Prince Regent in Joint Swedish and Norwegian Cabinet Council.
[-- -- --]
His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince Regent declared:
»I have to-day summond you to Joint Cabinet Council in order to make the
following address to you:
I herewith exhort the Cabinet Councils of the United Kingdoms, on both
sides without an one-sided adherence to standpoints formerly held, to
immediately enter into free and friendly negotiations concerning a new
arrangement of all matters affecting the Union, upon the fundamental
principle that full equality between the countries should be tried to be
established.
The way which, in My opinion, ought to be chosen and in which, as far as
I know, with a little good intention on both sides a solution of the
difficulties satisfactory to all parties can be attained is this: Foreign
Minister in common, be he a Swede or a Norwegian, responsible to both
countries or to a joint institution; separate Consular service for each
country arranged however, in such a way that the Consuls, in everything
regarding the relations to Foreign Powers, should be under the Foreign
Minister's direction and control.
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 Constitution 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 Björlin._
_Hj. Palmstierna._ _Fredrik Pettersson._ _Gust. Tamm._
_R. Törnebladh._ _Wilh. Walldén._
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
pass 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 Tällberg._ _K. H. Gez. von Schéele._
_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 asserted 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
constitutional 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 passed 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 Constitution, and for a reform
requested with cumulative 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 constitutional 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
constitutional 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 circumstance that from the Swedish
side a number of demands were finally made and adhered to, which are
partly considered as incongruous with the Constitution 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 circumstances 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 embarrassing 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.
In the declaration made by your Royal Highness on the 5th inst. and put
on record, the Swedish Cabinet Council expected to find a method of
settling the differences of opinion as to the Union affairs. Therefore
the Swedish Cabinet Council gave its support to your Royal Highness's
declaration.
The condition of the new negotiations, however, was, according to the
same declaration, that the negotiations should embrace all matters
affecting the Union and consequently also the Consular question.
Whereas now from the Norwegian side the thought of further negotiations
is rejected, ere a separate Norwegian Consular service has been
established and whereas besides, for eventual new negotiations, such a
condition is made from the Norwegian side as incompatible with the Union
and the Act of Union, it is obvious that negotiations on the basis
indicated by your Royal Highness cannot now be opened with any chance of
success».
This statement was endorsed by the other members of the Swedish Cabinet
Council.
The Norwegian part of the Cabinet Council stated:
»The section of the Cabinet Council refers to the report of the Norwegian
Government from which it appears that on the Norwegian side there is
willingness to bring about negotiations between the countries on the
conditions put forward in the report. It is also obvious from the report
that from the Norwegian side the intention is not to try to dissolve the
present Union. On the other hand, one finds it necessary to demand that
such a dissolution should be within the bounds of possibility and that
negotiations presupposing this eventuality with the consent of the
Constitution authorities of both countries, should be compatible with the
Act of Union.
Under these circumstances, however, the section of the Cabinet Council
that negotiations concerning the Union affairs cannot, agree for the
present, opened with any chance of success.»
His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince Regent was hereupon pleased he to
declare:
»Whereas the Norwegian Government has unfortunately been unwilling to
accept my proposition of new negotiations concerning all the affairs
affecting the Union, I must, while sincerely regretting it, let the
matter abide by the declarations made by the Cabinet Councils.»
17.
The Riksdags address to the King on the Union question, on May 15, 1905.