Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/298

 5. For railways, posts, and telegraphs; 6. For affairs of justice;

7. For finances.

'"In each of these committees, besides the presidency, at least four of the Federal States will be represented, and in the committees each State has only one vote. In the committee for the land-army and fortresses Bavaria has a permanent seat; the other members thereof, as well as the members for the naval committee, are nominated by the Emperor; the members of the other committees are elected by the Federal Council. The composition of these committees is to be renewed for every session of the Federal Council or every year, as the case may be, when the outgoing members may be re-elected.

'"Besides these, a committee for foreign affairs will be formed in the Federal Council, comprised of the representatives of the Kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurtemberg, and of two other representatives of other Federal States, who will be yearly elected by the Federal Council, in which committee Bavaria will occupy the chair.

'"The necessary officials will be placed at the disposal of these committees."

'As the foreign affairs committee of the Federal Council exists solely for the purpose of receiving information about foreign affairs, which is usually conveyed by the Imperial Chancellor himself, and of providing means for an exchange of views, Prussia, in whom the actual conduct of foreign affairs is vested, is not a member of the committee. The proceedings are confidential, and State Ministers, when questioned in their respective Diets, usually say nothing more than that the information conveyed to the committee has been satisfactory, and that unanimity has prevailed. In reality, the committee has met on very few occasions since the foundation of the Empire, but since the domestic crisis of November 1908 it has become the practice for Bavaria to call meetings in connection with any foreign question of great magnitude and lasting public interest, From 1871 to 1908 only two meetings of the committee appear to have been held. Since 1908 there have been several meeings, including one before the meeting of the Reichstag in October of the present year.