To issue a blank cheque to someone
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In the original sense, a blank cheque is a cheque form bearing the signature of the account holder or authorised representative which does not contain an amount. With such a blank cheque, the holder of the document can withdraw any amount he wishes from the account holder's account.
In a figurative sense, this is an authorisation that grants a person or institution very extensive freedom of action and provides for little or no control over the corresponding actions.
The best-known example is the blank cheque or blank power of attorney given by Kaiser Wilhelm II to Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the July crisis of 1914: Kaiser Wilhelm II reiterated the undivided loyalty of the German Reich to Austria-Hungary, as he had already done in 1908 during the Bosnian annexation crisis.
This written guarantee was sent by Ladislaus Count von Szögyény-Marich, the Austrian ambassador in Berlin, to the Austrian Foreign Minister Leopold Count von Berchtold and later confirmed by the German Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg. This blank cheque gave Austria-Hungary the necessary backing for an ultimatum to Serbia in the July crisis of 1914. This led to World War I.
