Chapter 9

It is therefore my sincerest hope and my strongest exhortation to you not to enter upon a way that leads to a rupture between the two peoples. It has so often been said that the dynasty tries to look after its own interests, but this is not true. The Union is not of paramount interest to the _dynasty_, but it should be so to the two _peoples_, for it is a vital condition for their happiness and future.

The Royal power has never tried to prevent Norway from obtaining her own Consular service. The only condition for the fulfilment of this desire is, and must be, that the relation to the joint administration of Foreign affairs should be arranged in a way securing the Union and that this matter regarding both countries cannot be definitively settled until after being treated in accordance with § 5 of the Act of Union. From My standpoint as the Regent of the United Kingdoms I can never act otherwise than as I consider useful to the existing Union to which I hold Myself bound to adhere.

An attempt has now been made on the way to partial reform, which I am sorry to say has been unsuccessful. But one should not therefore give up everything and enter into a way that, at any rate, cannot lead to the obobject preserved. But the logical consequence of this is to enter into new negotiations with Sweden on a larger basis. And to such negotiations on the basis of complete equality between the countries I declare Myself fully prepared to lend my assistance.

I consider it my imperative duty openly to hold forth to you the great dangers and the fatal consequences for each people to follow their own course. United, we have at any rate a certain power and importance in the European system of states but separated--how much the less the word of Norway or of Sweden would _then_ weigh! Therefore, may these peoples assigned by nature itself to hold together, also do so for the future!

When I see all this stand out clearly to My inward eye, you, too will understand with what sincere and intense, and heart-felt sorrow I consider thesituation we are in and the threatening turn matters now seem to take.

In conclusion I want only to add this: when you go to your task, do so with entirely open eyes and consider carefully _all_ consequences of your actions. Each one may act according to his best convictions! God leads the destinies of the peoples. May He give you and us all prudence so as to enter into the way that leads to the true welfare of the Fatherland and of the North.

I want this my address to be published.

GUSTAF

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.

TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING.

In both Chambers of the Riksdag resolutions have been submitted with the object of expressing, in an address, to your Majesty the Riksdag's support of the declaration published in the »Post-och Inrikes Tidningar» and made by the Crown-Prince Regent in Joint Swedish and Norwegian Cabinet Council on the 5th of April last.

This declaration is to the following effect:

[-- -- --]

The Riksdag realizes to the full the importance of this declaration of the Crown-Prince Regent, as involving a possibility of bringing about a new satisfactory arrangement of the Union affairs.

It is therefore with an expression of regret that the Riksdag has learned from the publishment of the Protocol drawn up in Joint Swedish and Norwegian Cabinet Council on the 25th of April last, that negotiations founded on the basis indicated in the above-mentioned declaration of the Crown-Prince Regent cannot now be opened with any chance of success.

Although thus the question of such negotiations seems to have been dropped for the present, the Riksdag, however, considers itself bound to express its opinion on a question of such a far-reaching importance as the present one, and consequently the Riksdag has resolved to announce herewith its support of the declaration made by the Crown-Prince Regent in Joint Swedish and Norwegian Cabinet Council on April 5th this year, and recommending the opening of negotiations between the Swedish and Norwegian Governments concerning a new arrangement of the Union affairs.

Stockholm, May 13, 1905.

With all loyal veneration.

18.

The resignation of the Norwegian Government. Dated Christiania, May 26, 1905.

TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING.

In case Your Majesty should find yourself unable to acquiesce in the Norwegian Government's recommendation to sanction the Storthing's resolution for the establishment of a separate Norwegian Consular service, we venture, in all humility, to apply for permission to immediately resign our posts as members of Your Majesty's Cabinet, since none of us well be able to countersign a resolution considered by us as noxious to the country. A rejection of this unanimous recommendation of the Government concerning a Norwegian law unanimously adopted by the Storthing and issued by the whole Norwegian people to be carried through cannot, in our opinion, be grounded on regards paid to the interests of Norway, but would involve an abnegation of the Sovereignity of the country, and would be a manifestation of a personal Royal power in opposition to the Constitution and to constitutional practice.

Christiania, May 26, 1905.

19.

Report of the Cabinet Council held in Stockholm May 30th 1905, given by the Norwegian Section of the Council.

To the President of the Norwegian Government.

The Section of the Cabinet Council herewith presents the following report.