The control by the Reichstag over the Cabinet may be exercised also by means of a _parliamentary investigating committee_. This is a novelty in German public law. In its first draft the project of the Constitution did not permit the institution of investigating committees except in cases where the sincerity or the legality of an act of the Cabinet is questioned. But the National Assembly has gone further than that and, with the exception of a case of actual lack of confidence in the Cabinet on the part of the Reichstag, the latter assumes the right without limitation of appointing investigating committees. These committees may, for example, be created to examine economic and other questions of importance. The Reichstag must proceed to the appointment of an investigating committee if a fifth of its members demand it. The procedure according to which these committees may operate is not at all prescribed. The Constitution says only that such a committee may take such testimony in open session as it itself or the authors of the proposal of the investigation may consider necessary. But by a majority of two-thirds the committee may decide that the meetings shall not be public. Tribunals and administrative authorities are obliged to comply with the requests of these committees, with the view of developing evidence. The files of these authorities are, on demand, open to these committees. The Reichstag nominates in addition two _permanent committees_. One of them is that on Foreign Affairs. Its purpose is to submit the foreign policies of the Cabinet to a constant surveillance by the popular representation. It may after the adjournment of the Reichstag, or when the powers of the Reichstag have expired, or after a dissolution of the Reichstag remain in power until the National Assembly has reconvened. Its meetings are theoretically not public. However, a majority of two-thirds may order that they be such. It has the same powers as an investigating committee. During the deliberations on the project of the Constitution, serious objections were raised against the institution of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. It was claimed that this committee would in advance be an expression of lack of confidence in the Cabinet and as an organ of surveillance would exercise a particularly troublesome influence on foreign policies. To this the reply was, that in the countries in which there have been appointed committees on foreign affairs there has been no evidence of unfavorable results. In addition, this committee would not be in the first instance a committee of surveillance, but an organism which, in matters of foreign policy would bring the influence of politically experienced personalities of the Reichstag to bear on the professional agencies of the diplomatic service.