Minister Jackson to the Secretary of State.
Athens, November 28, 1905.
Sir: Referring to my dispatch from Cettinje of the 30th ultimo, I have now the honor to report more at length in regard to the presentation of my credentials to the Prince of Montenegro.
I reached Cattaro about noon on Friday, October 27, and the same afternoon I drove to Cettinje. The next morning I called at the ministry of foreign affairs and made the acquaintance of the secretary-general, leaving with him a copy of my credentials and a written [Page 665] request for an audience in which to present the original to the Prince. Later in the day I renewed my acquaintance with the minister, his excellency the Voyevode G. Voucovitch, whom I had met at Belgrade about a year before, and the next day I was informed by the minister verbally that my audience would take place on Monday morning. On Sunday morning I met the Hereditary Prince, whose acquaintance I had also made at Belgrade, at the time of the coronation of King Peter of Servia, and was invited by him to lunch with the Princess and himself.
At the time appointed on Monday morning I was called for by the Prince’s adjutant and driven to the palace in a court carriage. A military detachment was drawn up in front of the palace, which saluted me upon my arrival and departure, the band playing Hail Columbia on both occasions. Inside the palace I was met by the minister of foreign affairs, who escorted me up stairs to a large reception room in which I found the Prince and the Hereditary Prince surrounded by all the Montenegrin ministers and various generals and other dignitaries, all in the full national dress.
In presenting my credentials I paraphrased the words used by the President, adding that it was a personal pleasure to me to be the first representative of a free people in a country which had always been able to maintain its independence. I spoke in French and the Prince replied in the same language in a speech a copy and translation of which I inclose herewith. After receiving the President’s letter the Prince presented the ministers and others to me, and then took me into another room where we sat down and where the conversation was of a pleasant informal character. In the course of this conversation the Prince referred repeatedly (as he and other members of the royal family did on various other occasions) to the pleasure it gave him to welcome an American representative to Montenegro and to the compliment paid Montenegro by the American Government in accrediting me to his court. He asked me to thank the President for his action in this matter, and he added that, as a friend of Russia, he felt very grateful to the President for the part taken by him in bringing about peace between that country and Japan. The Prince hoped that my coming to Montenegro would be of advantage to the Montenegrins in the United States and that it would lead as well to increased commercial relations between the two countries. His Royal Highness suggested the negotiation of a commercial treaty.
On the evening of the next day, October 30, a dinner was given in my honor at the palace, and on which occasion the Prince read and translated to me the proclamation [call for a national assembly], which was published four days later. That evening I was again sent for and taken back to my hotel by a carriage from the court.
On his hearing that I was leaving the next day the Prince sent for and received me in private audience on the morning of November 2, when we had a prolonged conversation of an informal general character, in which His Royal Highness repeated much that he had said before. I left Cettinje en route for Athens, by way of Italy, on November 3.
I have, etc.,