Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1916, Supplement, The World War

File No. 763.72119/313

The Norwegian Minister (Bryn) to the Secretary of State ²

Washington, December 29, 1916 .

My Dear Mr. Secretary of State: I have pleasure in handing you enclosed copy of a note which my Government has to-day addressed to the governments of the belligerent nations.

Believe me [etc.]

H. Bryn

[Enclosure—Translation]

Note addressed December 29, 1916 by the Norwegian Government to the Governments of Belligerent Countries

It is with the keenest interest that the Norwegian Government has learned of the proposals just made by the President of the United States with a view to facilitating measures tending to the establishment of lasting peace, while desiring to avoid any interference that might wound legitimate sensibilities. The Norwegian Government would consider itself remiss in its duty to its own people and the whole of mankind if it should fail to express its most profound sympathy with every effort that might contribute to bringing to an end the progressive accumulation of suffering and moral and physical losses. It indulges the hope that the initiative of President Wilson will end in a result worthy of the lofty spirit by which he was inspired.

2. Communications transmitting copies of notes, identical with the enclosure, addressed to the belligerent governments by their own governments, were received from the Danish Minister, December 29, and from the Swedish Minister, December 30, 1916 (File Nos. 763.72119/312, 345).