AUSTRIA-HUNGARY DEATH OF EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH AND ACCESSION OF KARL I File No. 863.001F85/8 The Chargé d'Affaires of Austria-Hungary to the Secretary of State [Translation] AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMBASSY, Washington, November 22, 1916. EXCELLENCY: I have the sad duty of informing your excellency that His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty Franz Joseph İ, my most gracious master, died at 5 minutes after 9 o'clock in the evening of November 21, after a short illness. I am instructed to request your excellency to bring this sad news to the knowledge of His Excellency the President of the United States. Accept [etc.] E. ZWIEDINEK File No. 863.001F85/9 The Emperor to the President [Telegram] BERLIN, VIA SAYVILLE, November 22, 1916. With deepest sorrow I hasten to inform Your Excellency that my beloved grand-uncle, His Imperial and Royal Majesty, Francis Joseph Roemisch I, expired last night after a short illness. I feel confident that Your Excellency and the American nation will sympathize with the great loss that Austria-Hungary has sustained by the death of His Majesty. CHARLES File No. 863.001F85/8a The President to the Emperor [Telegram] THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, November 22, 1916. I beg of Your Majesty and the Imperial and Royal Family to accept the sincerest sympathy of Mrs. Wilson and myself in the great loss which you have sustained in the death of your illustrious uncle, for whom I entertained sentiments of high esteem and regard. I also extend to Your Majesty the condolences of the Government and people of the United States, and convey to you my best wishes for your personal well-being and prosperity. WOODROW WILSON File No. 863.001F85/8b The Secretary of State to Ambassador Penfield [Telegram] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 22, 1916. 1427. The President has sent a message of sympathy to Emperor Charles Francis Joseph. Extend sincere condolences of President, Government, people of the United States, to the people of the Dual Monarchy in death of their late venerated Emperor and King, endeared to them by his nobly borne private griefs and the wisdom and benevolences of his long and eventful reign. Extend to Minister for Foreign Affairs my personal sympathy in this great loss which has been sustained by Austria-Hungary in the death of His Majesty. LANSING File No. 863.001F85/8 The Secretary of State to the Chargé d'Affaires of Austria-Hungary DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 23, 1916. SIR: I have had the honor to receive with great regret your note of yesterday by which you officially communicate to me the sad intelligence of the death of His Majesty Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia and Apostolic King of Hungary, at five minutes past nine o'clock on the evening of November the twentyfirst. It has been my pathetic duty to bring promptly this information to the knowledge of the President who, greatly shocked by the demise of this venerable and illustrious ruler for whom he entertained high esteem and regard, has conveyed directly by telegram to Emperor Karl Franz Joseph and the Imperial and Royal Family his own sincere condolences and those of the Government and people of the United States in this great grief which has come upon the Dual Monarchy, and extended to the new Emperor his best wishes for his personal well being and prosperity. I have in like manner offered to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria-Hungary the expression of my own personal sympathy in the great loss which has been sustained by Austria-Hungary. Accept [etc.] ROBERT LANSING File No. 863.001F85/7 The Secretary of State to Ambassador Penfield [Telegram] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 23, 1916. 1428. The President, desiring to show the high respect due to the memory of the late Emperor and King, has invested you with the rank and character of a Special Ambassador to represent him and the people of the United States at funeral obsequies. So notify Foreign Office. Send appropriate wreath in President's name. LANSING File No. 863.001F85/13 Ambassador Penfield to the Secretary of State [Telegram] AMERICAN EMBASSY, Vienna, November 26, 1916. 1551. Department's 1428. In reply to your message of condolence, which was received on the 25th instant, Minister for Foreign Affairs states: I hasten to request your kind intervention in order to express to Mr. Lansing and the Government of the United States my deep-felt thanks for this kind message of condolence. May I also request you to thank Mr. Lansing very warmly on my behalf for his personal sympathy, which I appreciate very deeply. File No. 863.001F85/27 BURIAN PENFIELD No 2259 SIR: Ambassador Penfield to the Secretary of State [Extract] AMERICAN EMBASSY, Vienna, December 3, 1916. On November 28 the new Emperor Karl I of Austria and King Karl IV of Hungary and the Empress-Queen Zita received the Ambassadorial Body---now reduced to five members-at the Hofburg * * On November 30 I was again received at the Hofburg by the Emperor and Empress, this time in my capacity of Special Ambassador. * At three o'clock that afternoon the obsequies over the mortal remains of the sovereign, who had ruled longer than any monarch since Louis XIV, were held in the cathedral church of St. Stephen's. * * * At the close the Emperor, Empress and a hundred or more royalties followed the hearse on foot to the Capuchin Church, whose crypt contains the coffins of scores of Hapsburgs. In the march from the cathedral to the church the special representatives were given places immediately behind the Imperial Family. President Wilson's representative walked with the representative of the Pope. * December 30 is the date fixed for crowning King Karl IV and Queen Zita at Budapest. * * * The new Crown Prince, born on November 20, 1912, is named Franz Joseph Otto. I have [etc.] FREDERIC C. PENFIELD RELEASE OF FRANK GHILONI, AN AMERICAN CITIZEN, IMPRESSED INTO THE ITALIAN ARMY AND TAKEN PRISONER (See Italy: Liability to military service, etc.) BELGIUM ABROGATION OF PROVISIONS OF CERTAIN TREATIES CONFLICTING WITH THE SEAMEN'S ACT OF MARCH 4, 1915.-ACCEPTANCE OF THE ABROGATION BY BELGIUM, CHINA, DENMARK, FRANCE AND GREECE. STATEMENT BY BRAZIL OF STATUS OF TREATY PROVISIONS.1 File No. 711.0021/94a The Secretary of State to the American Legation at Brussels 2 [Circular telegram] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Endeavor obtain early reply to representations made in accordance with Department's instruction May 29, 1915, regarding Seamen's Act, approved March 4, 1915. LANSING SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith enclosed a copy and translation of a letter to me from Baron Beyens, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs at Sainte Adresse, dated June 29, 1916, relative to the act to promote the welfare of American seamen in the merchant marine of the United States approved March 4, 1915, and its effect on the conventional stipulations between the United States and Belgium and the former Independent State of the Kongo. This communication is in reply to Minister Whitlock's letter to the late Mr. Davignon, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, dated July 6, 1915. JOHN BALL OSBORNE [Inclosure --Translation] The Minister for Foreign Affairs to Consul Osborne MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SIR: As you are aware, his excellency Mr. Brand Whitlock was so good as to communicate to Mr. Davignon the text of a law relative to the merchant marine, approved by the American Congress March 4, 1915. 1 Continued from For. Rel. 1915, p. 3. *Sent also to the Embassies at Rio de Janeiro, Vienna, and Madrid, and the Legations at Peking, Copenhagen, Athens, The Hague, Christiania, and Bucharest. That law entrusts the President of the United States with the duty of terminating the provisions of the international treaties to which the United States are a party, which are not in agreement with the new régime which it establishes. His excellency pointed out, as coming within this purview, Articles 11 and 12 of the Consular Convention concluded March 9, 1880, between Belgium and the United States, as well as Article 5 of the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation signed January 24, 1891, between the Independent State of the Kongo and the United States. Nevertheless, rather than denounce the two conventions, the American Government suggests to the Government of the King to terminate, by agreement, these three articles and leave in force the other provisions of the treaties. Furthermore, it proposes to put on record the agreement reached on this point by an exchange of notes; these should provide that the articles referred to shall cease to have effect July 1, 1916. The Government of the King, appreciating the reasons which have caused the promulgation of the American law of March 4, 1915, and which lead the American Government to propose the abrogation of the conventional stipulations in question, accepts this proposal, as regards Articles 11 and 12 of the Consular Convention of March 9, 1880. The agreement on this point will take effect dating from July 1, 1916. It will be considered as established by the present letter and by the communication to which it is in response and which Mr. Brand Whitlock addressed to Mr. Davignon on July 6 last. The Belgium Government is likewise in agreement with the American Goyernment for the continued application after July 1, 1916, under the former conditions, of the non-abrogated articles of the Consular Convention. As regards the Treaty of January 24, 1891, with the former Independent State of the Kongo, the Government of the King desiring, on its side, to make modifications in several of its provisions, considers that the best solution consists in terminating the convention itself. I should be obliged to you, Mr. Consul, if you would be good enough to inform the American Government and request it to make formal acknowledgment of this denunciation to the Belgian Government. The latter, on the other hand, being desirous of giving satisfaction to the request of the Government of the United States, consents that Article 5 of the Treaty of January 24, 1891, shall cease to have effect on and after July 1, 1916, the other articles remaining provisionally in force. Receive [etc.] BEYENS File No. 711.5521/4 The Secretary of State to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belgium DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 11, 1916. EXCELLENCY: I have had the honor to receive through the American Legation at Brussels and the American Embassy at Berlin, the communication which you addressed on June 29, 1916, to Mr. John Ball Osborne, American Consul at Havre, France, in reply to the note by which Mr. Brand Whitlock, American Minister at Brussels communicated to Mr. Davignon the text of the law of the United States approved March 4, 1915, known as the Seamen's Act, and notice of the intention of the Government of the United States to denounce, in pursuance to that law, Articles 11 and 12 of the Consular Convention concluded March 9, 1880, between the United States and Belgium, and Article 5 of the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, signed January 24, 1891, between the United States and the Independent State of the Kongo, as well as the desire of the Government of the United States that the remaining articles of these |