Valens and Dinkeaw dissolved

Sunday 21st saw an Act of Parliament passed dissolving two Austenasian land claims, namely the Town of Valens and the Crown Dependency of Dinkeaw. Valens, which was annexed from Canada in December 2022, was home to six people. The Acting Representative of Valens dropped out of contact with the imperial government in mid-2023, and no response was gained from several attempts to re-establish contact with the town, including by posted mail. The trigger to move ahead with the dissolution of Valens is a proposed constitutional amendment, which will require near unanimity in Parliament to enact. Removing the empty seat held by Valens decreases the number of votes needed to meet the required threshold. Also dissolved is Dinkeaw, a small uninhabited area of land claimed from Thailand in April 2020. The owner of the land, who originally claimed it for the Empire, requested the dissolution of the claim for reasons of security and privacy.

New Town claimed in Colorado

A new Austenasian Town has been founded after a family of three in Colorado claimed their home for the Empire. The Colquhoun family contacted Emperor Jonathan I with a request to join Austenasia, and after supplying the necessary information their house was formally annexed earlier today as the Town of Chandler. The now Lord Michael Colquhoun has been appointed Baron of Chandler, as well as its Acting Representative. A local election for Chandler – as well as for the similarly young town of Valens – is expected to be held early next year to secure a democratic mandate for parliamentary representation. With Parliament being in recess for the festive period, the annexation was enacted through an Imperial Decree, which will be put before the House of Representatives to be formally ratified after the holiday season. This marks the first time that Austenasia has had eleven towns. The Empire previously held a record number of ten towns from January 2015 to September 2016, a number briefly reached again in February 2020, and again since May this year.

Territorial changes see population increase

The population of Austenasia has reached 110 upon various changes made to its territorial make-up. Thursday 1st December saw an Act of Parliament passed which annexed a new town, Valens, as well as a new Crown Dependency, Ganapati Vihar. Valens, annexed from Montreal in Canada, has a population of six, making it the Empire’s joint most populous land claim alongside Chalcedon. It is comprised of a three-floor apartment building, all the inhabitants of which have signed a request to joing Austenasia. Ganapati Vihar, annexed from Kolkata in India, is uninhabited, and consists of a currently uninhabited residential property claimed for Austenasia by its owner, Soumyadip Sengupta. Three other changes were also made which affected the demographic and administrative make-up of the Empire. First, New Flat Rock, which was founded as a Town in December 2020, has been transitioned into a Crown Dependency. This is primarily due to none of it residents wishing to serve as an active Representative, while at the same time they wish to retain Austenasian nationality. It will therefore be governed autonomously by its former Representative, Lord Hunter Prater, as Governing Commissioner. Second, Oberfalcer – a Territory annexed from France in August 2019 – has been dissolved after its founder and governor, Lord Paccard, dropped out of contact with the government last year. Lastly, Austenasian subjectship was removed from Lord Paccard, together with another Austenasian non-residential subject who is likewise believed to have no desire to retain nationality, while also being granted to the Empire’s newly appointed Ambassador to the Philippines, Manuel Salta. Although the cession of Oberfalcer has resulted in a net loss of territory, the annexation of Valens and the grant of subjectship to Mr Salta has raised the total number of Austenasians to 110, 76 of whom live in Austenasian land claims.