Part 8 (1/2)

3.

Preliminary settlement of the Consular question between members of the Swedish and the Norwegian Cabinet Council, on March 24, 1903. (The so-called Communique).

The negotiations carried on in Stockholm during the last months of October, December, and January between the members of the Swedish and the Norwegian Government here subjoined, and regarding the Consular question, have been continued in Christiania during February and March.

During these negotiations the Swedish members maintained that the establishment of a separate Consular service for each of the United Kingdoms did not seem to them desirable in itself, and that they were not convinced that a dissolution of the existing community, in this respect, would convey any important practical advantages to either of the Kingdoms. On the contrary, there were reasons to apprehend lest this arrangement should lead to inconveniences.

Whereas, however, an opposite opinion has long been upheld by Norway and whereas, during the negotiations resulting from the report of the latest Consular committee made up by members from both countries, it has turned out not to be impossible to arrange, on certain conditions, such a system with separate consuls for each Kingdom as could, while it was meant to satisfy the desires expressed by Norway, also remove the princ.i.p.al apprehensions on the part of Sweden, the Swedish negotiators in order to attain the most important advantage of political concord between the two Kingdoms, have found it possible to recommend an agreement on the following terms:

1. Separate Consular services for Sweden and for Norway shall be established. The Consuls of each Kingdom shall be subordinate to the authority of their own country which the latter shall have to determine.

2. The relations of the separate consuls to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and to the Emba.s.sies shall be regulated by laws of th seame wording which cannot be altered nor abolished without the consent of the authorities, of both Kingdoms.

The Swedish negotiators have added to this that they realise in full and acknowledge that the position held for the present by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, does not correspond to the equality within the Union that Norway is ent.i.tled to claim. They have held forth the desirability of this question being made an object of negotiations, which, however, at present has not met with approval on the part of Norway. They have, however, declared themselves prepared to advise the King, whenever such a desire is expressed on the side of Norway, to lay before the Riksdag and the Storthing a proposition about such alterations of the Act of Union as can clear the way for the King to appoint a Swede or a Norwegian-Minister for Foreign affairs and render it possible to inst.i.tute the minister's const.i.tutional responsibility before the national a.s.semblies of both Kingdoms.

To this the Norwegian negotiators have answered that they naturally concur in the opinion that the existing arrangement for the administration of Foreign affairs does not agree with Norway's justified claims on equality within the Union. It was therefore all the more evident that, on the part of Norway, no regulations could be accepted that were meant to bind it to this arrangement. At the same time, however, they wanted to express the hope that the question about a satisfactory arrangement of the administration of Foreign affairs might soon be made an object of negotiations between the Kingdoms.

When the present negotiations had been carried on by Norway under the supposition that the question about a change of this unsatisfactory state of things should be left untouched, it had been done so out of regard to the fact that the opinions about the best way of correcting this state of things were so different in the two countries that, for the present, an agreement could not be expected.

We Swedish and Norwegian negotiators, having thus been confined to try to bring about such an arrangement of the Consular question as will leave _status quo_ undisturbed with respect to the position of the Minister for Foreign affairs and of the Emba.s.sies, have agreed upon that the relation between the Minister and the Diplomacy on the one hand, and the separate Consular Services on the other, should be regulated by laws of the same wording which cannot be altered by one of the parties alone and which both shall guarantee that the Consuls do not overstep the limits of their authority and at the same time shall add security to the necessary co-operation between the management of foreign affairs and the Consular Services of both Kingdoms.

In conclusion we also want to express the hope that the time shall not be remote when, by conciliatory advances on both sides, the question of arranging the management of Foreign affairs can be made an object of negotiations and find such a solution as can produce satisfaction in both countries and enduringly secure the futurity of the Union.

FOOTNOTES:

[73:1] These enactsments show plainly that the Act of Union only recognizes the Swedish Minister for Foreign affairs as the leader of the Foreign Policy of the Union.

4.

Extracts from the Norwegian Government's draft of laws of the same wording in order to regulate the relations between the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the legations on the one hand, and the separate Consular services of the two countries on the other hand. Dated May 28, 1904.

I.

The Consular administration by which is understood the authority the Consuls are subordinate to, has to inform the Minister for Foreign affairs of:

a) the establishment, the suppression, the alteration, or the division of Consular Services, the appointement or employment of Consuls, their power of attorney, leave of absence, suspension, recall, or discharge:

b) the general regulations and precepts issued with regard to the Consular Service;

c) measures particularly regarding the relations to Foreign Powers, as e.