ALSACE-LORRAINE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 215, 20 December 1910, Page 5

ALSACE-LORRAINE

THE NEW CONSTITUTION. By Cable —Press Association—Copyright. Received 19 10.40 p.m. Berlin, December 19. The laws for Alsace-Lorraine will take effect on December H 191*2, and will emanate from the Kaiser, with the consent of the two-chambered Diet. Thus the Reichstag will be unaole to legislate for the Reichland, for that estate is not granted a place in the Imperial legislation. The Government is to send to the Federal Council representatives who are entitled to speak, iut not to vote, it being argued that granting a vote in the Federal Council would be undesirable, as it would raise the question of the redistribution of power among ihe States. The Upper House will consist of thirty-six members (half of them ex-officers) and the Lower House sixty.

The provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which are about to be given a tiou by the German Federal Council, were ceded by France to Germany after the war of 1870. They are about half as large again as Hawk'e's Bay, and have a population of nearly two millions. The administration is under a GovernorGeneral appointed bv the Emperor, and bearing the title of "Statthalter." There is also a Landesausschuss, or Provincial Committee of 58 members, which attends to local legislation. All proposed laws have first to be submitted to the German Federal Council for approval before the Provincial Committee is allowed to consider them. If they are approved they have again to be submitted to the Federal Council. The people of AlsaceLorraine have fought steadily for local autonomy ever since 1871.