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 or deputy 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 consulsgeneral at large.

SEC. 5. No person who is not an American citizen shall be appointed hereafter in any consulate-general 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 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 or deputy 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. And vice-consuls-general, deputy consuls-general, vice-consuls, and deputy consuls, in addition to such compensation as they may be entitled to receive as consuls or clerks, may receive such portion of the salaries of the consul-general or consuls for whom they act as shall be provided by regulation.

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 twentyeight 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.

Approved, April 5, 1906.

[Public No. 83.]

EXECUTIVE ORDER.

With a view to further increasing the efficiency of the Consular Service by extending the method now employed for ascertaining the qualifications possessed by candidates for appointment in that service:

It is hereby ordered that the Executive Order of September 20, 1895, in regard to examinations for the Consular Service be and it is hereby amended and extended to include all consulates general, consulates, com-. mercial agencies and consular agencies, the annual compensation of which is not less than $1,000. Said order therefore will read as amended as follows:

It being of great importance that the consular officers of the United States shall possess the proper qualifications for their respective positions to be ascertained either through a satisfactory record of previous actual service under the Department of State or through an appropriate examination:

It is hereby ordered that any vacancy in a consulate general, consulate, commercial or consular agency now or hereafter existing the salary of which is not less than $1,000, or the compensation of which, if derived from official fees, exclusive of notarial and other unofficial receipts, does not fall below $1,000, shall be filled (a) by a transfer or promotion from some other position under the Department of State of a character tending to qualify the incumbent for the position to be filled; or (b) by appointment of a person not under the Department of State but having previously served thereunder to its satisfaction in a capacity tending to qualify him for the position to be filled; or (c) by the appointment of a person who, having furnished satisfactory evidence of character, responsibility, and capacity, and being thereupon selected by the President for examination, is found upon such examination to be qualified for the position.

For the purposes of this order notarial and unofficial fees shall not be regarded, but the compensation of an office shall be ascertained, if the office is salaried, by reference to the last preceding appropriation act, and

if the office is not salaried, by reference to the returns of official fees for the last preceding fiscal year.

The examination herein before provided for shall be by a Board of three persons designated by the Secretary of State who shall also prescribe the subjects to which such examinations shall relate and the general mode of conducting the same by the Board.

A vacancy in a consulate will be filled at discretion only when a suitable appointment can not be made in any of the modes indicated in the second paragraph of this order.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

November 10th, 1905.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

REGULATIONS GOVERNING CONSULAR APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS.

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, the Congress has classified and graded the consulsgeneral and consuls of the United States by the act entitled "An act to provide for the reorganization of the consular service of the United States," approved April 5, 1906, and has thereby made it practicable to extend to that branch of the civil service the aforesaid provisions of the Revised Statutes and the principles embodied in the Civil Service Act of January 16, 1883.

Now, therefore, in the exercise of the powers conferred upon him by the Constitution and laws of the United States, the President makes the following regulations to govern the selection of consuls general and consuls in the civil service of the United States, subject always to the advice and consent of the Senate:

1. Vacancies in the office of consul-general and in the office of consul

above class 8 shall be filled by promotion from the lower grades of the consular service, based upon ability and efficiency as shown in the service. 2. Vacancies in the office of consul of class 8 and of consul of class 9 shall be filled:

(a) By promotion on the basis of ability and efficiency as shown in the service, of consular clerks, and of vice consuls, deputy consuls, and consular agents who shall have been appointed to such offices upon examination.

(b) By new appointments of candidates who have passed a satisfactory examination for appointment as consul as hereafter provided.

3. Persons in the service of the Department of State with salaries of two thousand dollars or upwards shall be eligible for promotion, on the basis of ability and efficiency as shown in the service, to any grade of the consular service above class 8 of consuls.

4. The Secretary of State, or such officer of the Department of State as the President shall designate, the Chief of the Consular Bureau, and the Chief Examiner of the Civil Service Commission, or some person whom said Commission shall designate, shall constitute a Board of Examiners for admission to the consular service.

5. It shall be the duty of the Board of Examiners to formulate rules for and hold examinations of applicants for admission to the consular service.

6. The scope and method of the examinations shall be determined by the Board of Examiners, but among the subjects shall be included at least one modern language other than English; 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; political economy; elements of international, commercial and maritime law.

7. Examination papers shall be rated on a scale of 100, and no person rated at less than 80 shall be eligible for certification.

8. No one shall be examined who is under twenty-one or over fifty years of age, or who is not a citizen of the United States, or who is not of good character and habits and physically and mentally qualified for the proper performance of consular work, or who has not been specially designated by the President for appointment to the consular service subject to examination.

9. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the eighth or ninth class of consuls which the President may deem it expedient to fill, the Secretary of State shall inform the Board of Examiners, who shall certify to him the