Ottoman Diplomats

Synopsis

Etienne Carathéodory Effendi explains that the elections in Belgium were based on census suffrage. The extreme left (the progressive liberals), however, wanted constitutional reforms. As a conciliatory move, the liberal government presented a bill on the extension of suffrage for the communal and the provincial elections. The Belgian House of Representatives discussed this matter for a week. Carathéodory notes that there were splendid and moving discourses. Eventually, the bill had been dismissed by a large majority. Carathéodory admired the speech of Paul Janson, the leader of the progressive liberals, but admired the speech of Prime Minister Frère-Orban even more. Frère-Orban distanced himself from the revisionists, from the extreme left wing of his party, by revealing ‘their hidden republican-socialist tendencies’. Carathéodory evaluates the use of such clear terms as a courageous but a necessary move. (The enclosed reproduction of the debates is not photographed.)

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