702.7311/37
The Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Montenegro ( Plamenatz ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 4.]
Excellency: With reference to the esteemed communication dated 21st January 1921, which your Department has been good enough to send to the Consul General of Montenegro in New York, Mr. F. W. Dix, revoking the Letters Patent recognising Mr. F. W. Dix as Honorary Consul General of Montenegro, I have the honour to submit the following for the kind consideration of Your Excellency.
On behalf of the Royal Government of Montenegro I have the honour to declare to Your Excellency that no fact, either juridical or international, exists, on the strength of which the Government of the United States could break off diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Montenegro.
Your Excellency is perfectly well aware that Montenegro voluntarily entered the recent Great War in order to fight against the same enemies, and for the realisation of the same ideals as the United States of America. Montenegro fell in the fight against the common enemy in the same way as did Belgium and Serbia.
When the United States of America, through the medium of President Wilson’s message of 8th January 1918, Point 11, declared that one of the conditions of peace must be the restoration of Montenegro, undoubtedly the Government of the United States was, at [Page 948] that time, inspired by principles of international right and morality. International right demanded the restoration of the liberty of the Montenegrin State, which has been jealously guarded for so many centuries. Morality also demanded of all the Great Allied Powers, including the United States of America, that Montenegro, their smallest and loyal Ally should be restored. It is on account of all the above mentioned facts that the United States made the condition contained in Point 11 of President Wilson’s message, regarding the restoration of Montenegro.
When the Serbian troops, led by French officers, entered Montenegro and accomplished the annexation of the Allied Montenegro by force and bloodshed; and when the Montenegrin people rose in arms against this new oppressor, President Wilson at one of the sittings of the Peace Conference, composed a message which was communicated to the Montenegrin people through the Montenegrin Government, and by means of the French Military authorities. By this telegram the representatives of the Great Powers appealed to the Montenegrin people to stop all further bloodshed, assuring them that they would be given the right of free self-determination.
The term “free self-determination” can be understood in only two ways, viz., either the right of self-determination as foreseen in the Montenegrin Constitution, or the self-determination which was granted even to the enemy provinces such as Sleswig, Silesia etc.
If President Wilson’s message to the people of Montenegro meant the first method, then Montenegro should have been restored in the same way as Belgium and Serbia. If, however, the second method was intended by the words “free self-determination”, this should have been carried out by means of a plebiscite, which would naturally mean the withdrawal of the Serbian Army of Occupation, whilst the voting would be controlled by the Great Allied Powers.
However, neither the one nor the other has yet been put into practice, so that the question of Montenegro still remains open, whilst the Great Powers are bound to settle it in favour of the Constitutional liberty of the Montenegrin people.
Taking into consideration all the foregoing facts, the Royal Government of Montenegro cannot believe that the Government of the United States—the most civilised country in the world—would commit an act which would mean the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Montenegro. Such an action would not only aid the criminal intentions of Belgrade but would ignore all the principles of international morality and Justice, and the United States of America would be guilty of not keeping its given word, and not respecting the sovereignty of Montenegro.
In consideration of all the above mentioned facts, I have the honour to request Your Excellency to be so good as to rectify this [Page 949] misunderstanding, and to restore and continue the diplomatic relations with Montenegro which have been so happily carried on for such a long time.
I beg to remain [etc.]