Ottoman Diplomats

Synopsis

Seïfeddin Bey gives a summary of Belgium’s future military costs and expenses, resulting from the new law on the reorganisation of the Belgian army. He mentions where the government planned to get the extra money from. Part of the expenses could be covered by budgetary measures, like new taxes. A loan should cover the extraordinary expenses (on armaments). An annual payment of twenty million francs a year would be needed for twenty-five years. Seïfeddin Bey notes that these financial plans testified to the Catholic government’s courage. He explains how and why these plans contradicted with the traditions of the Catholic majority, and why the opposition criticized the programme. Even within the Catholic Party, there was dissension. Everyone seemed to acknowledge the need of the reorganisations, but there was still criticism on the lack of generalisation of the military service and above all on the lack of efficiency of the dispositions against immediate danger. Seïfeddin Bey stresses the importance of his report on the financial measures (the new taxes and altered rights), taken by a ‘modern country of progress, like Belgium’, as legislative reforms were relevant to the Ottoman Empire.

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