File No. 763.72112/617
The Swedish Minister (Ekengren) to the Secretary of State
Memorandum
In consequence of the British Admiralty’s proclamation with regard to the navigation on the North Sea, Sweden has issued a protest, as have also Denmark and Norway, in which the Swedish Government refuses to recognize any right for a belligerent power to restrict the navigation of a neutral country as far as its traffic on the high seas is concerned and His Majesty’s Government reserves for itself full liberty of action with regard to the British proclamation and to its consequences as to commerce, the navigation, and the fisheries of Sweden.
Upon negotiations held in Stockholm and initiated by the Swedish Government, that Government as well as the Governments of Denmark and Norway have, besides, addressed to the Governments of England, Russia, France, and Germany similar notes2 containing a [Page 473] protest drawn up in general terms and directed against certain measures which are inconsistent with the principles of international law and which have been resorted to by certain of the belligerent powers. Especially has been pointed out the danger caused by the mining of common Commercial routes on the high seas and the inconvenience of neutral vessels being compelled to follow certain specially defined routes and to call at certain ports.
In this note attention has also been drawn to the great damage inflicted on the commerce of all neutral powers by the arbitrary alterations of the rules concerning contraband and the seizure and searching of vessels undertaken by the belligerents.
The Swedish Minister has been ordered by his Government to inform the Secretary of State about the above and to ascertain the position which he holds with regard to these questions.
It would be gratifying to the Swedish Government if the steps thus taken toward the preserving of the rules laid down by international law and in the interest of peaceful intercourse receive the sympathies of the United States of America.
The text of the note of protest tendered to the governments of the a foresaid belligerent powers will later be transmitted.
- The date of receipt of this memorandum is apparently not correctly indicated, the earliest stamp feeing of January 14, 1915. Copies of the Swedish note to the belligerent governments, which it states “will later be transmitted,” were communicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the American Minister in Sweden on November 14, 1914, and by the Swedish Minister to the Department of State on December 18.↩
- Ante, p. 360 ↩