860h.01/120
The Yugoslav Minister ( Grouitch ) to the Department of State
Aide Memoire
The Minister of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes has been instructed by his Government to submit the following suggestion to the consideration of the United States Government:
The Department of State by the note of the Acting Secretary of State of February 10th 1919, No. 2,2 has informed the Royal Legation that the Department has noted the statement contained in a previous communication of the Royal Legation that in accordance with the decision of the Great National Assembly of the Kingdom of Montenegro, His Majesty King Nikolas I, and His Dynasty, had been deposed from the throne of that country and that the Union of Montenegro with Serbia in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes had been decreed; and that this decision had been accepted by His Royal Highness the Prince Regent of Serbia.
The Union of the former Kingdom of Montenegro with the former Kingdom of Serbia, in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and under the Dynasty of King Peter Karageorgevitch, has been an accomplished fact for the last two years. It has been fully endorsed by the population of the former Kingdom of Montenegro, which has sent its representatives, duly elected, to the Constituant Assembly which has met at Belgrade a few weeks ago, in order to frame the Constitution of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
No objections have been raised against this Union by the Allied and Associated Powers, or by the Neutral Powers to whom the Union has been notified. The Italian Government, which was the last to recognize the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, [Page 946] has declared, in the preamble of the treaty recently concluded in Rapallo, that the creation of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was the realisation of one of the loftiest objects of the war which Italy has waged. The French Government has recently informed officially the Royal Government that, in view of the Union of Montenegro with Serbia, it had decided to recall the French diplomatic and consular representatives in the former Kingdom of Montenegro and to withdraw recognition of the diplomatic and consular representatives in France of ex King Nikolas of Montenegro and of the former Montenegrin Government.
The Royal Government hopes that, in view of these facts, the Government of the United States of America will also recall its diplomatic and consular representatives in the former Kingdom of Montenegro and withdraw further recognition of the diplomatic and consular representatives in the United States of America of ex King Nikolas of Montenegro and of the former Montenegrin Government.