SECTION IV
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL
ARTICLE 60
A National Council will be organized to represent the German States in national legislation and administration.
ARTICLE 61
In the National Council each State has at least one vote. In the case of the larger States one vote is accorded for every million inhabitants. Any excess equal at least to the population of the smallest State is reckoned as equivalent to a full million. No State shall be accredited with more than two-fifths of all votes.
[German-Austria after its union with the German Commonwealth will receive the right of participation in the National Council with the number of votes corresponding to its population. Until that time the representatives of German-Austria have a deliberate voice.] [84]
[ [84] Stricken out at the demand of the Supreme Council of the Allied and Associated Powers. The Supreme Council addressed the following demand to Germany on September 2, 1919:
"The Allied and Associated Powers have examined the German Constitution of August 11, 1919. They observe that the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 61 constitute a formal violation of Article 80 of the Treaty of Peace signed at Versailles on June 28, 1919. This violation is twofold:
"1. Article 61 by stipulating for the admission of Austria to the Reichsrat assimilates that Republic to the German States composing the German Empire—an assimilation which is incompatible with respect to the independence of Austria.
"2. By admitting and providing for the participation of Austria in the Council of the Empire Article 61 creates a political tie and a common political action between Germany and Austria in absolute opposition to the independence of the latter.
"In consequence the Allied and Associated Powers, after reminding the German Government that Article 178 of the German Constitution declares that 'the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles can not be affected by the Constitution,' invite the German Government to take the necessary measures to efface without delay this violation by declaring Article 61, Paragraph 2, to be null and void.
"Without prejudice to subsequent measures in case of refusal, and in virtue of the Treaty of Peace (and in particular Article 29), the Allied and Associated Powers inform the German Government that this violation of its engagements on an essential point will compel them, if satisfaction is not given to their just demand within 15 days from the date of the present note, immediately to order the extension of their occupation on the right bank of the Rhine."
Article 29 of the Treaty of Peace refers to Map No. 1 which shows the boundaries of Germany and provides that the text of Articles 27 and 28 will be final as to those boundaries. Article 80 reads as follows:—
"Germany acknowledges and will respect strictly the independence of Austria, within the frontiers which may be fixed in a Treaty between that State and the Principal Allied and Associated Powers; she agrees that this independence shall be inalienable, except with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations."
A diplomatic act was signed at Paris on September 22, 1919, by the representatives of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers and Germany in the following terms:
"The undersigned, duly authorized and acting in the name of the German Government, recognizes and declares that all the provisions of the German Constitution of August 11, 1919, which are in contradiction of the terms of the Treaty of Peace signed at Versailles on June 28, 1919, are null.
"The German Government declares and recognizes that in consequence Paragraph 2 of Article 61 of the said Constitution is null, and that in particular the admission of Austrian representatives to the Reichstag could only take place in the event of the consent of the Council of the League of Nations to a corresponding modification of Austria's international situation.
"The present declaration shall be approved by the competent German legislative authority, within the fortnight following the entry into force of the Peace Treaty.
"Given at Versailles, September 22, 1919, in the presence of the undersigned representatives of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers."
The number of votes is determined anew by the National Council after every general census.