The author describes a case, which, regardless of its trivial nature, attracted much public attention as it
caused heated Parliamentary debates and newspaper polemics. In spring of 1886, the national MP Tomaszczuk
presented Winkler's decree in the Vienna Parliament, which, in his opinion, proved (in addition to a
number of other accusations) that the government (and in particular the provincial president Winkler) were
suppressing the Germans of Carniola. According to Tomaszczuk, the decree implemented »inquisitional«
methods by forcing all civil servants who supported the Constitution to express their personal opinions on
government policy, i.e. forcing them to reply in writing to very specific questions on the matter. The Slovenes
refuted the accusations, arguing that that there were only three civil servants in question, who were never
sacked, the intent of the entire investigation having been only to drop them a hint to curb themselves and not
to proclaim their anti-government opinions publicly. At the same time, the Slovenes also exposed the mistakes
of the former German-Liberal government, which had implemented punitive transfers of Slovene civil
servants to the remotest parts of the Monarchy on no solid grounds.