Will Grant Constitution.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 7, 1913:
Mecklenburg Grand Dukes to Proclaim One if Opposition Persists.
    SCHWERIN, May 6.— An extraordinary session of the joint Diet of the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, called to make a final attempt to provide some form of representative government for these two Grand Duchies, the only States still existing in Europe without a constitution, opened at the Grand Ducal Palace here to-day.
    Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV. of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Duke Adolf Friedrich, the heir to the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, delivered speeches in which they declared reform to be imperative. The Crown, they said, was ready to surrender an important part of its sovereign rights, and the privileged classes must also make sacrifices.
    It is understood that if the constitutional question, which already has occupied practically the whole time of five Diets, should not be solved during this session the Grand Dukes will arbitrarily proclaim a constitution.
    All previous efforts have failed owing to the attitude of the privileged classes.