14 Motion on the Union Question in the Second Chamber of the Swedish Riksdag
The declaration made by the Crown-Prince Regent in Joint Cabinet Council of the 5th inst. and published the day after in the »Post-och Inrikes Tidningar», has given great satisfaction to us and certainly also to other friends of the Union, to whom the relation arisen between the sister countries after the failure of the consular negotiations, has caused a great deal of anxiety. That new negotiations if brought about, will have a decisive influence on the future of the Union, is obvious. The worth of the Union, as well as the prospect of maintaining it for a considerable time to come, depend upon the two peoples voluntary adherence to it in the conviction that the Union involves advantages well worth of those restrictions in each peoples absolute right of self determination as are necessarily conditioned by it. Again, the failure of the negotiations would evidently produce among the two peoples a general and settled opinion that an arrangement satisfactory to both cannot be found within the Union, and such a conviction is sure to undermine its existence.
Because of this, it proves to be of importance for the Riksdag not to pass in silence the suggestion of negotiations given in the above-mentioned declaration, but to second it, if found satisfactory.
It seems to us that the Riksdag should not hesitate to take the latter alternative, since the declaration, while holding in wiew the necessary communion in the management of Foreign affairs and in the two peoples’ control of it, at the same time in consideration of its latter portion, has the bearing that it should not preclude the possibility to attain a solution satisfactory to both peoples.
On that account we beg leave to move:
that the Riksdag, in an address to His Majesty, may announce its support of the declaration made by the Crown-Prince Regent in Joint Swedish and Norwegian Cabinet Council on April 5th this year with a view to bring about negotiations between the Swedish and Norwegian Governments concerning a new arrangement of the Union affairs.
Stockholm, April 12, 1905.
Carl Persson. Hans Andersson. Sixten von Friesen.
Ernst Lindblad. D. Persson i Tällberg. K. H. Gez. von Schéele.
T. Zetterstrand.