The foreign ministers, diplomats and other technical or governmental experts and officials intended to have a final meeting in Nagasaki in Febuary to finalize all the details and have the principal articles of the association treaty ready for signature by the eight governments. With the permanent chairman, already selected and the finances of the association partially settled, the main issue was the formation of the other association committees that were deemed necessary.
The Permanent Security Committee had been provisionally worked out with both China and Japan, as the senior co-chairs, with Siam as the Deputy Chair. While both the two empires had the largest air, naval and ground forces of the eight nations, Siam was a significant regional military power, in it's own right, in all three areas. Laos, was also significant as a land and air power but unlike all the other nations in the proposed association, it was completely land-locked and only had a small but useful riverine navy, rather then a seagoing one. Hawai'i, like Siam had a good mix of air, naval and land strength to add to the association's overall military power, while Tonga, Brunei and Samoa had decent sized air and naval power for their respective sizes and resources with adequate but not overly large land forces, which in fairness they had not needed before now.
The other committees deemed important enought to be formered were, the Directing Committee composed of the eight heads-of-states, their senior governmental ministers (or their designated representatives) which would decide the association's general policies; The Trade and Tariffs Committee, which would determine and regulate trade agreements between the eight states. The Legal and Legislative Committee, which would work out the legal or administrative frame works of policies set by the Directing Committee and the Trade and Tariffs Committee. The Intelligence Committee, which was to pool, evaluate and share civil and military intelligence and espionage or counter-espionage information between the eight states. The last committee deemed essential was, the Financial Committee, which would handle the association bank and work with existing financial cartels and banking institutions within each state with a view to collabrotive financial exchanges and projects.
The two emperors, the sultan, and the five kings were scheduled to meet in Nagasaki and sign the Treaty of Nagasaki into fact, in April, if the proposed association's political, administrative, economic and military details were tidied up and finished as quickly as was expected. He had to confess that he was actually looked forward to the trip, which would be his first outside the territorial boundaries of the Qing Empire. The meeting was to be an important but relatively low key affair, as the emphasis was on the treaty and effecting better relations between the eight states not on an excess of pomp and ceremony, which would only be a needless distraction. It would also only draw unwelcome and unwanted foreign attention especially from the various consulates in Nagasaki upon the event, which would undoubtablely ring violent alarm bells in all the governments and chancellories of the Great Powers, with the exception of Austria-Hungary.
The young emperor had to admit, that the likely aghast expressions of the governments and diplomatic corps of Great Britain, France and Russia especially amused him, when he considered the matter. Though he also soberly realized that the announcement of the Treaty of Nagasaki, would have serious political (and perhaps military) repercussions as well, which was not amusing to dwell upon. It was not to be doubted that the eight nations would recieve a barrage of diplomatic notes and questions, the moment the Great Powers heard about the treaty.
As far as any of the diplomatic or intelligence services of the eight nations had been able to determine, none of the Great Powers were in fact aware of the association discussions, save Austria-Hungary. The Austrians had been quietly sounded out about the idea, as they had a wealth of historical experience on dealing with various political, economic and administrative systems under the roof of one agency. The Austrians had been most helpful and played their involvement in the discussions close to their chest throughout, not even discussing the matter with their German or Italian allies. When the idea of an association bank had been raised with them, the Austrians had offered to find, very quietly, a suitable candidate to act as the bank's first director, they had felt a qualified person either in the Swiss or Austrian financial institutions could be found that would suit the future association's needs.
The post would require someone of high personal integrity, political neutrality, diplomatic finesse, administrative ability and a thorough knowledge of international banking systems and procedures. An alternative candidate from perhaps one of the more prominent New York financial institutions might also suffice as, the United States held (for the present anyway), a generally very neutral, business like attitude to most of the eight nations involved. The Samoans and Hawaiians however were unlikely to agree to this, later option, given the United States's previous involvement in their national affairs in the past, usually to the two kingdoms detriment and with a view to the Americans sole advantage.
As there were few currently amoung the finacial institutions of the eight nations, who had this kind of experience on the scale required for the Bank of the Association, it was felt that a qualified and capabable foreigner was essential to establish the bank's smooth internal operations and public creditablity. It would also head off arguments between the eight states if one of their own, was to hold the position, which would immediately cause problems and claims of one nation being favoured over the others when it came to bank services and loans. The Austrian legation minister to the Empire of Japan, had promised to locate, evaluate and bring any career and personal files conserning possible candidates to the next meeting in Nagasaki, so that the Association members could examine them and properly debate the merits of a final choice in the matter, which had been welcomed by all eight nations representatives.
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