Remarks at the Award Ceremony by Anders Johnsen Buen*, President of the Norwegian Parliament, on December 10, 1920

The letter from the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament reads as follows: “The Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament has the honor of announcing herewith its decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1919 to the President of the United States of America Mr. Woodrow Wilson and that for 1920 to Mr. Léon Bourgeois, president of the French Senate and president of the Council of the League of nations.”

Today, Gentlemen, as the Norwegian Parliament meets to present the Nobel Peace Prize for the first time since the World War¹, it is with the conviction that the great ideal of peace, so deeply rooted in the hopes for survival of the nations, will gain fresh ground in the minds of men as a result of the recent tragic events.

[President Buen then speaks of Woodrow Wilson – included in the section on Wilson.]

And the other Peace Prize, awarded to Léon Bourgeois, is accompanied by a salute from Norway to the will for peace of the French people, whom he has represented with great distinction for many years through good days and bad.

* Mr. Buen addressed these remarks to the Parliament at an official session on December 10, 1920, doing so after the Nobel Committee had announced its decision and after the diplomatic representatives of the two absent laureates had been officially admitted to the meeting. He then gave the Nobel diplomas and medals to the two ministers. Mr. Pralon, the French minister, accepted on behalf of Mr. Bourgeois, expressing the laureate’s regret at not being there to speak for himself and his gratitude, along with that of France, for the recognition given. The translation of Mr. Buen’s comments is based on the Norwegian text in Forhandlinger i Stortinget (nr. 502) for December 10, 1920 [Proceedings of the Norwegian Parliament].

1. World War I (1914-1918).