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 colonies do not form part of the "Bundesgebiet". The Franco-German Treaty, ceding and acquiring territory in the Cameroons and Congo, did not therefore require to be accepted by the Reichstag, and was in fact merely communicated: to the House. In view of the dissatisfaction caused by the discovery of this fact, the Reichstag on the 5th December, with the assent of the Government, read three times and passed a law which causes the following paragraph to be inserted in the Colonial Law of the 25th July, 1900 ("Schutzgebietsgesetz"):

'"An Imperial law is required for the acquisition and cession of a protectorate, or part of such. This provision does not apply to the question of the adjustment of frontiers."

'It remains to consider the practical or possible influence of the State Diets upon foreign affairs, Although the separate States retain Ministers for Foreign Affairs (usually the Ministers-President), and the right to separate representation abroad—Bavaria, for instance, has Ministers at Vienna, St. Petersburgh, Paris, and Rome (Vatican and Quirinal), and Saxony at Vienna—foreign relations are now conducted almost entirely (a) in Germany, by the Imperial Foreign Office in Berlin, which was raised to federal status out of the Prussian Foreign Office in 1867, and (b) abroad, by the Ambassadors and Ministers appointed by the Emperor (see article 11), Attempts are sometimes made to raise in the State Diets—especially at Dresden, Munich, and Stuttgart—questions of State policy in the Empire's foreign relations. Such questions can be referred to in general debates, or interpellations may be introduced. The question usually asked is what influence the Government of the State in question has exercised in Berlin, and especially whether there has been a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federal Council. This committee is essentially different from the seven permanent committees of the Federal Council.

'By article 8 of the constitution: "The Federal Council forms permanent committees from its own members:

1. For the land-army and fortresses;

2. For naval affairs;

3. For customs and taxes;

4. For commerce and intercourse;