uld "duly value the importance of a loyal
co-operation."

It was evident that these statements from the Swedish side could not be
considered as contributing to the solution of the problem, so much the
more so, as the Swedish members had strong doubts. Neither could any
reference to them be made on Norway's part without further notice, the
Committee itself having shirked the most salient points, namely those of
a practical and political nature. And yet in Norway the committee's
conclusions were considered to be an acknowledged method from the Swedish
side for the solution of the question[22:1].

[Sidenote: _Negotiations 1902-1903 between Swedish and Norwegian
delegates._]

Mr. BOSTROeM became Prime Minister in the summer of 1902, and in the
autumn of that year, negotiations on the Consular question were commenced
between the delegates of the Swedish and Norwegian Cabinets. The
conclusions of the Consular Committee were then preliminarily examined
and discussed. In February and March the negotiations were continued in
Christiania, and touched especially upon the political side of the
matter, particularly the nature and binding power of an eventual
agreement. In the middle of March negotiations were abruptly broken off
on the grounds of divergencies of opinion, but were resumed again by the
Norwegian side, the result being published on March 24th in the well
known so-called Communique[23:1].

[Sidenote: _The Communique._]

This much-dismissed Act must be regarded as a summary compendium of the
preliminary results of the negotiations in the Consular question, though
it must be especially observed that it is not issued by the governments
themselves[23:2], but only by different members in each, and that the
Swedish members, at any rate, had no official authority in the matter.

Its contents inform us that the Swedish negotiators prefer to have the
Consular question solved in conjunction with the entire question of
Foreign administration, in other words, _they plainly offered a general
agreement to separate Consular services under a joint Minister of Foreign
affairs_, but that the Norwegian negotiators _refused_ this offer. On the
Norwegian Radical Side it was considered that the time was not yet ripe
for such a solution, and a resolution in the Storthing affirmed this in
January 1903, with the consent of the government; the Radicals were
evidently determined not to give up their claim--so unreasonable from a
Union poin