File No. 711.5914/241½
The Danish Minister to the Secretary of State
Washington, October 2, 1916.
Dear Mr. Secretary of State: Since my letter to you of August 26th regarding the various steps taken by the Danish Government in order to obtain in due form the necessary legislative consent to the cession of the Danish West Indian Islands to the United States, the political crisis caused in Denmark by our Convention of August 4th, 1916 has further developed, and you have no doubt been kept fully informed by Mr. Egan of all the phases and provisional results of this crises.
By a cablegram received here on September 29th the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs has informed me that the crisis has now been solved by an agreement between the different political parties according to which a representative of each of the three political parties not now represented in the Government will be added to the Cabinet as Minister without portfolio, and the question of the cession of the islands will be submitted to a special commission and thereupon to a plebiscite, in accordance with the proposition of the present Danish Government.
[Page 682]The time limit within which the commission is to finish its work has been fixed at six weeks, and the plebiscite is to take place 14 days after the completion of the report of the commission, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs considers it quite possible that the commission will be able to finish its work within a shorter time than six weeks.
I thought that this information would be of interest to you, if only as a confirmation of your own reports from Copenhagen, and so am sending it to you, although without any special instruction to this effect.
I am [etc.]