However, the French National Assembly refused to ratify this text in the light of the potential costs and risks of direct colonial control, not least since it had never even authorised the military occupation of the country. An agreement providing, at least formally, for indirect rule was therefore required. A modified text was drawn up, stating that the Bey of Tunis undertook to introduce such administrative, judicial and financial reforms as the French government judged appropriate. This form of words allowed the fiction to be preserved that the ultimate decisions were to be taken by the Bey. To ensure that the Bey signed the conventions, the treaty provided that the Bey would receive a pension of two million Tunisian rials. The amended conventions were signed by Ali Bey and Cambon on 8 June 1883. It took the French National Assembly nearly a year to accept that Tunisian debt was to be converted into 4% bonds with a Bank of France guarantee. After three days of debate, the conventions were finally ratified on 3 April 1884 by 319 votes to 161. The consequent legislation authorising the French President Jules Grévy to ratify and execute the conventions was promulgated in the Official Journal on 11 April 1884  The conversion of the debt took place between June and October 1884 and the International Debt Commission itself was dissolved on 13 October, transferring its powers to the Tunisian Ministry of Finance which had been established by beylical decree on 4 November 1882. A subsequent French Presidential decree on 10 November 1884 delegated to the Resident General in Tunisia the power to initiate and execute, in the name of the French government, all decrees of the Bey. This decree, together with the first article of the conventions themselves, allowed the Resident General to impose his legislative wishes on the Bey, thereby establishing the substantive form of direct rule within the appearance of a mere protectorate. For this reason, the revocation of the Conventions became a key objective of the Tunisian national movement. The first attempt at ending the conventions was in 1951 when the Mohamed Chenik government was formed and the new Resident General Louis Périllier indicated a willingness to grant greater autonomy. The Tunisian administration therefore submitted a memorandum to the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman on 31 October 1951, arguing that the legal basis for a comprehensive delegation of powers from the Bey to the French government did not exist in the Conventions, merely an undertaking by the sovereign to effect particular reforms on the basis of French advice. It further asserted that there had been no relinquishing of overall beylical sovereignty, which remained undiminished insofar as the Bey's wishes were not inconsistent with the undertakings of the Treaty of Bardo.