711.5712A/6
The Norwegian Minister ( Bachke ) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary of State: I have had the honor to receive Your Excellency’s note, dated March 10th,4 transmitting as a basis for negotiation a draft of a proposed treaty of arbitration between the Kingdom of Norway and the United States of America, to take the place of the present treaty of arbitration between the two countries signed at Washington, April 4th 1908 and expiring by limitation on June 24th, 1928.
Having submitted to my Government the said draft I have now been instructed to inform Your Excellency that the Norwegian Government, equally desirous of promoting the friendly relations between the people of the two countries and of advancing the cause of arbitration and the pacific settlement of international disputes, has given the most careful consideration to the proposition of Your Excellency. My Government, however, has found that a prolongation of [Page 707] the existing treaty for a further period of five years would be more acceptable to it, with the following modifications to be introduced in the present text of the treaty, viz that the words in article I: “July 29, 1899” be replaced by the words “October 18, 1907” and that the words “do not affect the vital interests, the independence or the honor of the two contracting States and” in the same article be deleted. Consequently, the Norwegian Government would prefer to negotiate on the base of upholding the treaty of 1908 and it wants me to express the hope that the Government of the United States of America could see its way to accept the extension of the existing treaty of arbitration with the modifications suggested.
Please accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩