The Royal Gazette Official Publication of His Altlandic Majesty's Government: July, 305
The Royal Gazette 
Your Grace of Nijmork, Lords and Ladies Spiritual and Temporal, Masters Delegate, Members of the Popular Assembly by my Writ hereunto convoked:
Having emerged from our period of seclusion after three years, it would be only with great difficulty that we could express our joy and satisfaction at standing here before you once again to review the progress of our nation since the last such assembly and to present the program of my Government for the coming term of three years. This program and the drafts of certain laws which implement it have been drawn up with our collaboration during during our final months at the Royal Abbey of St. Victor. We have taken counsel with the Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors and with the Presidents and Directors of the various subsidiary boards and departments which work under them. After much discussion, we have arrived at the conviction that those enactments which we will lay before you in summary during this address, and to which you will have access in full draft form immediately upon the conclusion of this Solemn Opening, are just and necessary for the welfare of the whole Nation and of all Altlandic people everywhere, in all corners of this Kingdom, in all parts of the newly-reconstituted Altlandic Family of Nations, and in the Vexillium as a whole, wherever they may be. The particulars of some of these enactments will be explained to you shortly by the officers of state to whose jurisdictions and governmental charges they most directly pertain. But for this present meeting, we think it meet that we ourselves lay before you for your consideration and advice, and for your eventual consent, those great matters which pertain to the state of the commonweal as a whole.
First we must turn our attention to the constitution of the Altlandic Family of Nations, an organization which was founded in the year 303, shortly after the last session of our Great Council. At that time, it was little more than an umbrella term for the collection of political entities of various types which then existed under our sovereignty. Shortly thereafter, the drafting of the Phenixian Constitution having been completed and the document having been adopted in a plebiscite by the Phenixian nation, we surrendered our mandate over that country and the newly established government of the Phenixian Republic simultaneously proclaimed its complete independence and its determination to remain within the Altlandic Family. The subsequent acceptance of the Union of San Patricio's application for membership further helped to transform the Altlandic Family of Nations into a true association of sovereign states rather than a mere collection of political entities under our sway. At this time, Afrazure also will soon attain full sovereignty and will become an equal partner with Altland, Phenixia, and San Patricio. All these developments led to our decision to act on our own initiative to give The Altlandic Family of Nations a new charter providing for a General Secretariat which could act on behalf of the member states in certain well-defined ways which would include the development of a common foreign policy, a close defensive military alliance, a free trade zone, free and unhindered passage for the citizens of one member state into the territory of all others, and the eventual development of compatible legal systems and a common Declaration of Rights. Enabling legislation dealing with all of these matters will be laid before you for your consideration and eventual decision during this session of the Great Council.
Next, we wish to declare to you officially our intention of beginning the process of terminating our protectorate over the nation of Afrazure. This will involve, first, the completion of an accurate census and survey of the country, a project which has been going on since a condition of relative stability was achieved in 303. We anticipate the results being available to the government of the Protectorate within the next two months. Afrazurean citizenship cards carrying a unique identification number will then be issued to all documented Afrazurean nationals. Thereupon elections shall be held on the provincial level for representation in a National Constituent Assembly which shall be charged with debating and establishing the principles to be embodied in a new national constitution, which shall be drafted by a committee chosen from among the membership of the Constituent Assembly and, once drafted, submitted to the whole body for ammedment and approval before it is referred to the people for their vote of acceptance or rejection. During this period, Prince Youssef, who has been my ward, but who has this year attained his majority, will remain in Altland to complete his study of the Civil Law at Komdn. His eventual role in the structure of the Afrazurean state will be determined by the Constituent Assembly, and he has given his solemn pledge that he will accept whatever place the people of Afrazure may choose to assign him. I wish this transition to full sovereignty for Afrazure to be discussed in this Great Council both so that we may benefit from your wisdom and experience in matters of state, and so that laws may be enacted which will regulate the impact of this transition on Altlandic commercial, social, and religious interests.
The forging of a governing structure for Afrazure leads us directly to the next subject which I wish to lay before you, which is our desire to go beyond the Altlandic Family of Nations to form a League of Monarchical States for the purpose of promoting the understanding of monarchical forms of government and their adoption throughout the Vexillium. Again, with regard to this intention of ours, we seek your advice and ask you to determine whether the establishment of such a league would have any notable effect on the interests of Altlanders at home or abroad.
Next, we must once again address ourselves to the strengthening of our defensive capabilities in the face of the re-emergence of a strong and aggressive communist regime in the territory of Gronk on the Old Continent to our North. Although the outragous acts of this regime have justly aroused the ire of the directly bordering Greater Zartanian and Lyson empires, whose citizens have been assailed by the Gronkian regime, we must not permit ourselves to rely for our protection solely on the recent alliance of these powers nor on the considerable buffer provided by that sleeping giant of the old continent, the Republic of Armatirion. The communist orientation of the Gronkian regime is so repugnant to our own institutions and values that we feel compelled to take a leading role in combatting the growth of Gronkian power and the dissemination of Gronkian Communist ideas among the less stable and well-governed populations of the Vexillium. We have, therefore, noted with satisfaction and approval how our nascent "non-governmental organizations" have volunteered to participate in an international mission to Gronk for the purpose of unbiased fact-finding concerning the fate of those persons of Lysonian and Zartanian background who seem to have been interned there. It is in this context of a growing Gronkian threat that we will be laying before you measures for the reorganization and expansion of the Forces and for the adequate funding of these developments.
Alas, we must once again mention, as we have at the openings of the last two meetings of this, our Great Council, an still unresolved matter which continues to hold a high place among our concerns: the fate of that small settlement of Teuts-speaking Altlanders at the tip of the northern-most peninsula of Glaciaria, in a place known as Fort Capital, which is hardly farther distant from us than are our nearest independent neighbors in New Aquitania and Solelhada. We are signatories to the Glaciaria Convention and so have renounced any and all new territorial claims in the south polar continent. But the settlement at Fort Capital was already long-established when the Glaciaria Convention was drawn up, and we are convinced that the population of this territory, largely Altlandic in ethnic composition, is in need of effective government. Surely the Glaciaria convention, with whose guiding principles we are in complete agreement, was never intended to deprive these good people of the benefits and protections of an organized and stable civil society. The governing authority of Northern Gronk over Fort Capital has long ago lapsed, apparently and any attempt on the part of the People's Republic of Gronk to reassert that old claim would be viewed by us, considering the recently demonstrated nature of that regime, to be incompatible with our obligation to guard the welfare of the settlers and a direct threat to our broader national interests. Meanwhile, a claim once staked by the government of Namuria seems to have fallen into complete abeyance. We are determined, therefore, to continue watch over the interests of the settlers in Fort Captial until a permanent arrangement for their governance can be arrived at in the context of multilateral diplomacy in the forum of the United Nations of the Vexillium. We wish to serve notice, however, here and now, that should the United Nations of the Vexilllium remain inactive in this matter, especially if threatening moves are made toward For Capital by some other power, the Kingdom of Altland and its closest allies will employ their military resources in moving decisively to secure the saftey and rights of the people of Fort Capital and its inhabited hinterlands in the former Gronkian Glaciaria. We lay this declaration before you for your advice and consent, especially insofar as the danger and expense of carrying it out will surely affect the fortunes of those whom you represent.
Our necessary attention to foreign policy should not be allowed to distract us from the matters which we need to address in our administration of the nation. Three domestic concerns have gained our special attention: the ethnic cohesion of our realm, especially as it relates to the sense of comity between our Teuts-speaking and our Romandian subjects; the maintenance of vigilance with regard to establishing and preserving just condtions in our society, especially as regards to the relation of capital and labor, rich and poor; the natural drift toward increasing centralization of authority in the state and a tendency to forget the principle of susidiarity which is so vital to our traditional system of government.
To address the first of these concerns: Because a common national language promotes societal cohesion, and because it would be unjust to impose either Teuts or Romandian upon the population as a whole, we intend to make the mastery of international standard Ingallish, already widely understood and employed in our land, mandatory for youngster to demonstrate at all three scrutines, and to require all governmental documents to be published in Ingallish as their primary and legally authoritative version. Further, we will encourage the public use of Ingallish in commerce, media, learned professions, and in the fields of medicine, science, and technology. It is our intent to see to it that within a generation standard Ingallish has become the de facto and de jure national language of the realm, without prejudice to Teuts and Romandian as the primary languages of everyday private discourse and with careful attention to the preservation and continued appreciation of the rich linguistic, literary, and cultural heritages associated with both these languages. We are therefore placing extensive implementing legislation before you. You will also find, in the drafts to be presented to you in packets at the conclusion of this address, a number of other proposals for strengthening the feeling of unity which will be necessary for the future strength and prosperity of the kingdom.
With regard to the second of our chief domestic concerns, we intend to establish a permanent Royal Commission on Social Justice. It is for you, esteemed members of this Great Council, to establish the norms and guidelines according to which it should operate and accomplish its mandate to keep a watchful eye upon the social health of the realm and the maintenance of equity among all individuals, classes, and groupings in our society. Among the most import of the initial tasks which we intend to assign this Commission is an investigation of fairness in the operation of our medical resources in preserving the health and extending the lives of our subjects. We are anxious to see what proposals and suggestions all three houses of our Great Council will bring forward in this area.
Finally, I am instructing you all to consider effective ways in which the drift toward centralization of authority and administrative function can be stemmed and the principle of subsidiarity reasserted in practice. Let us examine all the functions and services currently carried out by the Royal Government and see which of them might just as well be carried out by the lower instances, be they provincial, cantonal, manorial, or local. I am asking you specifically to consider whether the registration of motor vehicles and the licensing and insuring of their operators ought to be returned to the jurisdiction of the several provinces.
These matters and developments, my dear peers, delegates, and popular representatives, we have thought good to bring to your special attention. There is much work to be accomplished by this Great Council for the peace, progress, and prosperity of our country, and this work will require much in the way of courage, devotion, and treasure from all of us gathered here and from all the good people of Altland who look to us for leadership and justice. We urge you to be unsparing of yourselves in the days to come, both here in the Houses of our Great Council assembled and in your efforts to bring our plans and policies to fruition when you return after adjournment to your usual places and roles throughout the land. We have every confidence in your wisdom, honor, loyalty, and patriotism. And so we leave you now to your work. May Altland prosper forever under the divine guidance and protection!
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Be it known that it is our
royal intention to summon to their usual places of assembly in
our capital of Midlburgh all those qualified by hereditary right,
designation, or election to sit in the three Houses of our Great
Council, and that we do ordain herewith that they enter into
official session on Sunday, the Thirty-First Day of this July,
commencing with a common assembly in the Grete Saal of the Jergenpalast
for the purpose of attending to our address to them from the
throne.
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