STATE DEPARTMENT FILE NO 701. 7311/12

The Ambassador in France (Sharp) to the Secretary of State, PARIS, APRIL 22 
1918, 6PM [RECEIVED 9.30PM]

3696 My 2987, January 3, 11 a.m., and previous telegrams. The Minister for 
Foreign Affairs of Montenegro has just informed me the King proposes to name 
as ambassador, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to United 
States, General Doctor Antoine Gvozdenovic, aide-de-camp to the King, and 
would be glad to know if this person would be persona grata to the Federal 
Government.

SHARP

STATE DEPARTMENT FILE NO 701. 7311/18

4997 Your 4386, General Gvozdenovic acceptable as Minister from
Montenegro.
 

STATE DEPARTMENT FILE NO 701. 7311/32

REMARKS OF GENERAL A GVOZDENOVIC, NEWLY APPOINTED MINISTER OF
MONTENEGRO, ON THE OCCASION OF HIS RECEPTION BY PRESIDENT WILSON, SEPTEMBER 
20, 1918

WHITE HOUSE DC

Mr President: The King, my August Sovereign, has deigned to entrust me with 
the high mission of representing his Government near the Federal Government 
of the United States and I have the honour to present to Your Excellency the 
letters which accredit me in the capacity of minister plenipotentiary and 
envoy extraordinary.
I am instructed to express to you, Mr President, the profound
satisfaction with which His Majesty the King, his Government and all 
Montenegrin experience in having the relations of sincere friendship and 
sympathy which already bound our small country to your great nation made 
closer by this new tie.
You will permit me to add that I realize with feelings of emotion the honour 
of being, near your great republic, the first minister
plenipotentiary sent by Montenegro.
My country''s admiration and enthusiasm for the United States rest on 
well-defined and deep-seated grounds.
With us, as with you, ideas of justice and liberty are not imported and 
artificially infused in our minds; they are the natural offspring of the 
race.For five centuries we have fought without respite our enemy who has 
succeeded in crushing the pride of the strongest nations. Neither were we 
fighting for our own land only, but also for the oppressed people of our 
blood, our Jugo-Slav brothers, so that they might have their day of freedom. 
Thanks to our tenacity, never during those five centuries, in spite of all 
the hurricanes and cataclysms, was there any extinction at the summit of our 
mountains of that beacon of independence that we strained with our every 
effort to keep alive, of that small,
flickering, but burning light to which all the unfortunate Balkan peoples 
turned their eyes and their hopes.
Impelled by that tradition which for the sake of Slavic solidarity has been, 
is and will be our law, we entered at once the present war and attempted to 
achieve the impossible. That the task was overwhelming this time, was no 
fault of ours.
So for many years our country, increasingly constrained to depend on arms for 
its very existence, failed to develop its domestic and foreign commerce, to 
create industries, to improve the agricultural
opportunities offered by the territory it lately acquired, to exploit its 
mineral reserves that have not yet been broached. In the hours of truce many 
of our young men had to leave their homes that they had bravely just saved. 
This country of bold initiative is that to which they came.
Their appeal to your nation for employment of their activities and strengths, 
for their daily bread and for the comfort of their old age when they would 
again see the wild scenery of their beloved motherland was not in vain.
By degrees and through those Montenegrin who crossed the ocean, America has 
come to be known and beloved in our mountains. It has grown to be looked to 
as a tender hearted friend. At this very moment the emigrants from Montenegro 
scattered over the vast territory of the greatest of the republics watch in 
enthusiastic interest your magnificent reparation for victory. But while they 
acclaim your soldier leaving for Europe, I know that their enthusiasm is 
mingled with regret that they cannot join in the struggle under the colours 
of their King and his country. Deep will be their joy when they hear today 
that I have spoken for them in their gratefulness for the generous 
hospitality extended to them in their day of misfortune by the United States.
But that, Mr President, is not I am sure the only word of gratitude I shall 
have to bring you n the name of Montenegro. My venerable
Sovereign and his Government know indeed how strongly the intentions of the 
Federal Republic coincide with the legitimate expectations and they are aware 
of the most rare and precious support they will find in your minds, one of 
the leading minds of the century.
The Montenegrin never entertained a doubt of the outcome of the
struggle for Right now carried on by the Allies among whom so many of their 
countrymen are voluntarily paying their mite of abnegation and heroism.
We ae confidently waiting for the day when the American troops whose mission, 
on that benevolence of which the Federal Republic has given such courteous 
evidence in agreeing to the creation of the Montenegrin mission in Washington.
Mt President, I am sure I am voicing the sentiments of my Sovereign and of 
all the people of Montenegro when I beg you to accept the very sincere wishes 
I make for the victory of the Allies, the glory of the United States and your 
personal happiness.

STATE DEPARTMENT FILE NO 701. 7311/32

REPLY OF PRESIDENT WILSON TO GENERAL A GVOZDENOVIC, ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 
RECEPTION, SEPTEMBER 20, 1918

I am happy to accept the credential letters by which His Majesty, the King of 
Montenegro, accredits you as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary 
near the Government of the United States and to accord you formal recognition 
in that high capacity.
For a number of years the Government of the United States has had diplomatic 
representatives accredited to Montenegro, in consequence of which it is 
appropriate that the existing government of Montenegro, though forced to find 
a refuge on foreign soil, should send a diplomatic representative to the 
United States Government.
The cruel hand of a most pitiless war has fallen heavily upon your gallant 
country, so long among the bravest champions of the liberty of its race.
With your brothers the Jugo-slavs, and your cousins the Czecho-Slovaks, and 
with the Roumanians as well, you have suffered from the rapacity of a 
heartless military organisation which knew only the attainment of material 
ambition through the use of brute force. The Imperial Austro- Hungarian 
Government, in league with the German military autocracy, from the very 
outset of this fatal war, has brought a reign of terror to the door steps and 
hearth-stones of the smallest countries within its reach. Murder, rapine, and 
pillage have left in their wake disrupted families, smouldering ruins and 
bleeding hearts. Proud and patriotic peoples have been brought to the verge 
of destruction, overcome by superior strength, and driven from their 
countries. Such is the sad plight of Montenegro and its neighbours, who have 
fallen victims to the desires of the German and Austrian Governments to 
enlarge their
territorial possessions, and to subject to their insidious influence the 
peoples of different countries, in spite of the desire of those peoples for 
distinct existence, and in the face of racial differences which are 
incompatible with the purposes of those who direct the movements of the 
German and Austrian Governments.
It is against these motives and ambitions, and against this centralized and 
dominating military power that the United States Government, in its sympathy 
for small nations, and in harmony with movements for racial independence has 
assumed an aggressive attitude and is fighting for the preservation of the 
rights of all nations fully determined to overcome the enemies of justice and 
liberty.
As regards those Montenegrin to whom you refer, who have come to live among 
us, and through whom the United States has become better known o their fellow 
countrymen at home, we owe them a debt of gratitude that they have 
contributed in no small measure, to the friendly relations and mutual good 
feeling which so happily prevail, and which it is my sincere hope will 
continue to prevail and increase day by day, fostered by your beneficent 
influence.
Permit me to assure you the you may confidently rely on my efforts and those 
of the officers of this Government to aid you with your most cordial good 
will in the performance of your duties of your mission and in the promotion 
of the common interests of the United States and Montenegro.

General Gvozdenovic in his Uniform as a Montenegrin General, with the Grand 
Cross and Diamond Star (1st Class), with crossed swords, of the Order of 
Danilo