XVIII. REGULATIONS CONCERNING PRECEDENCE OF DIPLOMATIC AGENTS. The rules on this subject which have been prescribed by the Department are the same as those contained in the seven rules of the Congress of Vienna, found in the protocol of the session of March 9, 1815, and in the supplementary or eighth rule of the Congress of Aix la Chapelle of November 21, 1818. They are as follows: ARTICLE I. Diplomatic agents are divided into three classes: That of ambassadors, legates, or nuncios; that of envoys, ministers, or other persons accredited to sovereigns; that of chargés d'affaires accredited to ministers for foreign affairs. ART. II. Ambassadors, legates, or nuncios only have the representative character. ART. III. Diplomatic agents on an extraordinary mission have not, on that account, any superiority of rank. ART. IV. Diplomatic agents shall take precedence in their respective classes according to the date of the official notification of their arrival. The present regulation shall not cause any innovation with regard to the representative of the Pope. ART. V. A uniform mode shall be determined in each state for the reception of diplomatic agents of each class. ART. VI. Relations of consanguinity or of family alliance between courts confer no precedence on their diplomatic agents. The same rule also applies to political alliances. ART. VII. In acts or treaties between several powers which grant alternate precedence, the order which is to be observed in the signatures shall be decided by lot between the ministers. ART. VIII. ** ** It is agreed that ministers resident accredited to them shall form, with respect to their precedence, an intermediate class between ministers of the second class and chargés d'affaires. These rules have been formally or tacitly accepted by all governments except the Ottoman Porte, which divides diplomatic representatives into three classes only-ambassadors, ministers, and chargés d'affaires. XIX. ACTS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE FOREIGN SERVICE, AND FOR THE REORGANIZATION OF THE CONSULAR SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. AN ACT FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE FOREIGN SERVICE, APPROVED FEBRUARY 5, 1915. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter all appointments of secretaries in the Diplomatic Service and of consuls general and consuls shall be by commission to the offices of secretary of embassy or legation, consul general, or consul, and not by commission to any particular post, and that such officers shall be assigned to posts and transferred from one post to another by order of the President as the interests of the service may require: Provided, That any such officer may be assigned for duty in the Department of State without loss of grade, class, or salary, such assignment to be for a period of not more than three years, unless the public interests demand further service, when such assignment may be extended for a period not to exceed one year, and no longer: Provided further, That no secretary, consul general, or consul shall be promoted to a higher class except upon the nomination of the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate. SEC. 2. That secretaries in the Diplomatic Service and consuls general and consuls shall hereafter be graded and classified as follows, with the salaries of each class herein affixed thereto. Secretary of class one, $3,000. SECRETARIES. Secretary of class four, $1,500. *Class five abolished July 1, 1916. SEC. 3. That section sixteen hundred and eighty-five of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 1685. That for such time as any secretary of embassy or legation shall be lawfully authorized to act as chargé d'affaires ad interim at the post to which he shall have been appointed or assigned, he shall be entitled to receive, in addition to his salary as secretary of embassy or legation, compensation equal to the difference between such salary and fifty per centum of the salary provided by law for the ambassador or minister at such post; and for such time as any vice consul shall be lawfully authorized to assume charge of a consulate general or consulate during the absence of the principal officer at the post to which he shall have been appointed or assigned, he shall be entitled to receive, in addition to his regular salary or compensation as a subordinate consular officer or employee, compensation equal to the difference between such salary or compensation and fifty per centum of the salary provided by law for the principal consular officer at such post." SEC. 4. That a secretary, consul general, or consul of whatever class detailed for special duty outside of the city of Washington shall be paid his actual and necessary expenses for subsistence during such special detail not exceeding $5 per day: Provided, That such special duty shall not continue for more than sixty days unless in the case of international gatherings, congresses, or conferences, when such subsistence expenses shall run only during the life of the international gathering, congress, or conference, as the case may be. SEC. 5. That the Secretary of State is directed to report from time to time to the President, along with his recommendations for promotion or for transfer between the department and the foreign service, the names of those secretaries in the Diplomatic Service and the names of those consular officers or departmental officers or employees who by reason of efficient service, an accurate record of which shall be kept in the Department of State, have demonstrated special efficiency, and also the names of persons found upon examination to have fitness for appointment to the lower grades of the service. SEC. 6. That section sixteen hundred and seventy-four of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 1674. That the official designations employed throughout this title shall be deemed to have the following meanings, respectively: "First. 'Consul general' and 'consul' shall be deemed to denote full, principal, and permanent consular officers as distinguished from subordinates and substitutes. "Second. 'Consular agent' shall be deemed to denote consular officers subordinate to such principals exercising the powers vested in them and performing the duties prescribed for them by regulation of the President at posts or places different from those at which such principals are located, respectively. "Third. 'Vice consuls' shall be deemed to denote consular officers subordinate to such principals exercising and performing the duties within the limits of their consulates at the same or at different points and places from those at which the principals are located, except that when vice consuls take charge of consulates general or consulates when the principal officers shall be temporarily absent or relieved from duty they shall be deemed to denote consular officers who shall be substituted, temporarily, to fill the places of said consuls general or consuls. "Fourth. 'Consular officer' shall be deemed to include consuls general, consuls, vice consuls, interpreters in consular offices, student interpreters, and consular agents, and none others. "Fifth. 'Diplomatic officer' shall be deemed to include ambassadors, envoys extraordinary, ministers plenipotentiary, ministers resident, commissioners, chargé d'affaires, counselors,* agents, secretaries of embassy and legation, and secretaries in the Diplomatic Service, and none others." The offices of vice consul general, deputy consul general, and deputy consul are abolished. SEC. 7. That no ambassador, minister, minister resident, diplomatic agent, or secretary in the Diplomatic Service of any grade or class shall, while he holds his office, be interested in or transact any business as a merchant, factor, broker, or other trader, or as an agent for any such person to, from, or within the country or countries to which he or the chief of his mission, as the case may be, is accredited, either in his own name or in the name or through the agency of any other person; nor shall he, in such country or countries, practice as a lawyer for compensation or be interested in the fees or compensation of any lawyer so practicing. SEC. 8. That this Act shall take effect on the day of its approval by the President, when all Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with this Act are repealed. AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE REORGANIZATION OF THE CONSULAR SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, APPROVED APRIL 5, 1906, AS AMENDED BY THE ACT APPROVED FEBRUARY 5, 1915. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the consular system of the United States be reorganized in the manner hereinafter provided in this Act. SEC. 2. That the consuls-general and the consuls of the United States shall hereafter be classified and graded as hereinafter specified, with the salaries of each class herein affixed thereto. [For classification of consuls-general and consuls see Act approved February 5, 1915, page 146.] SEC. 3. That the office of vice-consul shall be filled by appointment, as heretofore, except that whenever, in his judgment, the good of the service requires it, consuls may be designated by the President without thereby changing their classification to act for a period not to exceed one year as vice-consul, and when so acting they shall not be deemed to have vacated their offices as consuls. Consular agents may be appointed, when necessary, as heretofore. The grade of commercial agent is abolished. SEC. 4. That there shall be five inspectors of consulates, to be designated and commissioned as consuls-general at large, who shall receive an annual salary of five thousand dollars each, and shall be paid their actual and necessary traveling and subsistence expenses while traveling and inspecting under instructions from the Secretary of State. They shall be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, from the members of the consular force possessing the requisite qualications of experience and ability. They shall make such inspections of consular offices as the Secretary of State shall direct, and shall report to him. Each consular office shall be inspected at least once in every two years. Whenever the President has reason to believe that the business of a consulate or a consulategeneral is not being properly conducted and that it is necessary for the public interest, he may authorize any consul-general at large to suspend the consul or consul-general, and administer the office in his stead for a period not exceeding ninety days. In such case the consul-general at large so authorized shall have power to suspend any vice consular officer or clerk in said office during the period aforesaid. The provisions of law relating to the official bonds of consuls-general, and the provisions of sections seventeen hundred and thirty-four, seventeen hundred and thirty-five, and seventeen hundred and thirty-six, Revised Statutes of the United States, shall apply to consuls-general at large. SEC. 5. No person who is not an American citizen shall be appointed hereafter in any consulategeneral or consulate to any clerical position the salary of which is one thousand dollars a year or more. SEC. 6. Sections sixteen hundred and ninety-nine and seventeen hundred of the Revised Statutes of the United States are hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 1699. No consul-general, consul, or consular agent receiving a salary of more than one thousand dollars a year shall, while he holds his office, be interested in or transact any business as a merchant, factor, broker, or other trader, or as a clerk or other agent for any such person to, from, or within the *As amended by the Act approved July 1, 1916. port, place, or limits of his jurisdiction, directly or indirectly, either in his own name, or in the name or through the agency of any other person; nor shall he practice as a lawyer for compensation or be interested in the fees or compensation of any lawyer; and he shall in his official bond stipulate as a condition thereof not to violate this prohibition. "SEC. 1700. All consular officers whose respective salaries exceed one thousand dollars a year shall be subject to the prohibition against transacting business, practicing as a lawyer, or being interested in the fees or compensation of any lawyer contained in the preceding section. And the President may extend the prohibition to any consul-general, consul, or consular agent whose salary does not exceed one thousand dollars a year or who may be compensated by fees, and to any vice consular officer or consular agent, and may require such officer to give a bond not to violate the prohibition. " SEC. 7. That every consular officer of the United States is hereby required, whenever application is made to him therefor, within the limits of his consulate, to administer to or take from any person any oath, affirmation, affidavit, or deposition, and to perform any other notarial act which any notary public is required or authorized by law to do within the United States; and for every such notarial act performed he shall charge in each instance the appropriate fee prescribed by the President under section seventeen hundred and forty-five, Revised Statutes. SEC. 8. That all fees, official or unofficial, received by any officer in the consular service for services rendered in connection with the duties of his office or as a consular officer, including fees for notarial services and fees for taking depositions, executing commissions or letters rogatory, settling estates, receiving or paying out moneys, caring for or disposing of property, shall be accounted for and paid into the Treasury of the United States, and the sole and only compensation of such officers shall be by salaries fixed by law; but this shall not apply to consular agents, who shall be paid by one-half of the fees received in their offices, up to a maximum sum of one thousand dollars in any one year, the other half being accounted for and paid into the Treasury of the United States. For such time as any viceconsul shall be lawfully authorized to assume charge of a consulate-general or consulate during the absence of the principal officer at the post to which he shall have been appointed or assigned, he shall be entitled to receive, in addition to nis regular salary or compensation as a subordinate consular officer or employee, compensation equal to the difference between such salary or compensation and fifty per centum of the salary provided by law for the principal consular officer at such post. SEC. 9. That fees for the consular certification of invoices shall be, and they hereby are, included with the fees for official services for which the President is authorized by section seventeen hundred and forty-five of the Revised Statutes to prescribe rates or tariffs; and sections twenty-eight hundred and fifty-one and seventeen hundred and twenty-one of the Revised Statutes are hereby repealed. SEC. 10. That every consular officer shall be provided and kept supplied with adhesive official stamps, on which shall be printed the equivalent money value of denominations, and to amounts to be determined by the Department of State, and shall account quarterly to the Department of State for the use of such stamps and for such of them as shall remain in his hands. Whenever a consular officer is required or finds it necessary to perform any consular or notarial act he shall prepare and deliver to the party or parties at whose instance such act is performed a suitable and appropriate document as prescribed in the consular regulations and affix thereto and duly cancel an adhesive stamp or stamps of the denomination or denominations equivalent to the fee prescribed for such consular or notarial act, and no such act shall be legally valid within the jurisdiction of the Government of the United States unless such stamp or stamps is or are affixed and canceled. SEC. 11. That this Act shall take effect on the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and six. SEC. 12. That all Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed. XX. REGULATIONS GOVERNING APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE AND FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE PERSONNEL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE. EXECUTIVE ORDERS. Whereas, The Congress, by Section 1753 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, has provided as follows: "The President is authorized to prescribe such regulations for the admission of persons into the civil service of the United States as may best promote the efficiency thereof, and ascertain the fitness of each candidate in respect to age, health, character, knowledge, and ability for the branch of service into which he seeks to enter; and for this purpose he may employ suitable persons to conduct such inquiries, and may prescribe their duties, and establish regulations for the conduct of persons who may receive appointments in the civil service." And, Whereas, it is deemed best for the public interest to extend to the Diplomatic Service the aforesaid provision of the Revised Statutes and the general principles embodied in the Civil Service Act of January 16th, 1883: The Secretary of State is hereby directed to report from time to time to the President, along with his recommendations, the names of those secretaries of the higher grades in the Diplomatic Service who by reason of efficient service have demonstrated special capacity for promotion to be chiefs of mission. There shall be kept a careful efficiency record of every officer of the Diplomatic Service, in order that there may be no promotion except upon well-established efficiency as shown in the service, and that retention in the service may be conditioned upon the officers' maintaining a degree of efficiency well up to the average high standard which the interests of the service demand. Initial appointments from outside the service to secretaryships in the Diplomatic Service shall be only to the Classes of Third Secretary of Embassy, or, in case of higher existent vacancies, of Second Secretary of Legation, or of Secretary of Legation at such post as has assigned to it but one secretary. Vacancies in secretaryships of higher classes shall be filled by promotion from the lower grades of the service, based upon efficiency and ability as shown in the service. To make it more practicable to extend to the appointment, promotion, transfer, or retention of secretaries in the Diplomatic Service, the civil-service principle of promotion on the basis of efficiency as shown in the service, and in order that the action of the department may be understood by the officers concerned, all secretaryships in the Diplomatic Service shall be graded according to the importance, volume, difficulty, or other aspects of the work done by each mission in proportion to the number of men allotted to it, and this classification shall be made known to the members of the service. A person separated from a secretaryship in the Diplomatic Service without delinquency or misconduct at his own request in writing may, within a period of one year from the date of such separation, be reinstated in the grade from which he was separated, provided he shall have been originally appointed after the prescribed examination for that grade. In the event, however, that such separation shall be for the purpose of undertaking other work under the Department of State, the limitation of one year for eligibility for reinstatement shall not hold. This rule shall be applicable as regards reinstatements to the Consular Service and also to the Department of State when transfers shall have been to another branch of the foreign service. The Assistant Secretary of State,* the Third Assistant Secretary of State,† the Solicitor for the Department of State, the Chief of the Diplomatic Bureau, and the Chief of the Bureau of Appointments, and the Chief Examiner of the Civil Service Commission, or some person whom the commission shall designate, or such persons as may be designated to serve in their stead, are hereby constituted a Board whose duty it shall be to determine the qualifications of persons designated by the President for examination to determine their fitness for possible appointment as secretaries of embassy or legation. The examination herein provided for shall be held in Washington at such times as the needs of the service require. Candidates will be given reasonable notice to attend, and no person shall be designated to take the examination within thirty days of the time set therefor. The examinations shall be both oral and in writing and shall include the following subjects: international law, diplomatic usage, and a knowledge of at least one modern language other than English, to wit, French, German, or Spanish; also the natural, industrial, and commercial resources and the commerce of the United States, especially with reference to the possibilities of increasing and extending the trade of the United States with foreign countries; American history, government, and institutions; and the modern history since 1850 of Europe, Latin America, and the Far East. The object of the oral examination shall also be to determine the candidate's alertness, general contemporary information, and natural fitness for the service, including mental, moral, and physical qualifications, character, address, and general education and good command of English. In this part of the examination the applications previously filed will be given due weight by the board of examiners. In the determination of the final rating, the written and oral ratings shall be of equal weight. A physical examina tion shall also be included as supplemental. * As amended by the Executive order of April 11, 1916. † As amended by the Executive order of September 17, 1913. |