Office of the Historian

Minister Swenson to the Secretary of State

No. 201
American Legation,
Copenhagen, April 16, 1901.

Sir: Referring to my No. 200, of the 8th instant, I now have the honor to enclose herewith a copy, together with a translation, of a note, addressed to me by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, under date of the 15th instant, in reply to mine of April 8th.

In recent interviews, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Director General of the Foreign Office have informed me that the amended draft of convention, as well as your instructions to me, has made a most favorable impression upon the Ministry. Regret is however, expressed at the inability of the United States Government to accede to the requests of the Danish Government regarding the civil status of the inhabitants of the ceded territories, and the commercial relations of the islands with the United States.

The force of your explanations on these points is conceded; and yet the Danish Government seems reluctant to recede from its demands touching these two matters. I believe, nevertheless, that further discussion will result in the acceptance of the amended draft substantially as now submitted.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs has already taken preliminary steps towards arriving at a satisfactory agreement with the St. Croix Sugar Factories.

I have [etc.]

Laurits S. Swenson
[Inclosure—Translation]

The Minister of Foreign Affairs to Minister Swenson

Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Copenhagen, April 15, 1901.

Mr. Minister. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 8th instant, in which you were good enough to communicate to me a copy of a dispatch addressed to you by his excellency the Secretary of State [Page 490] at Washington, under date of the 26th ultimo, together with a new amended project of convention for a cession of the Danish West Indies to the United States.

I am happy to express my appreciation of the cordial spirit in which the Secretary of State replies to the observations contained in my last note; and I beg you, Mr. Minister, to assure his excellency that the King’s Government will consider in the same spirit the new project of convention now submitted by your Government.

I would state, however, that, as explained in my note of February 21 last, His Majesty’s Government will not be able finally to conclude an eventual convention until it shall have effected an agreement with the stock company called St. Croix Fallessukkerkogerier.

Be pleased to accept [etc.]

Schested