of approved methods and practices relative thereto, including the demonstration and promotion of the use of grades for wool in accordance with standards therefor which the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized to establish. Said funds may be used for the grading of wool, and for such grading or other service rendered hereunder reasonable fees may be charged, and provided further that hereafter reasonable charges may be made for practical forms of grades for wool. SEC. 3. The Secretary of Agriculture may make such rules and regulations as he deems advisable for carrying out any of the provisions

such amounts, but not to exceed a total of $25.000, as may be neces sary to acquire by purchase or condemnation lands or water rights necessary, in his judgment, for forest-tree nurseries or for additions to existing forest-tree nurseries, and any lands obtained under the authority of this act shall, upon acquisition, become parts of the nearest national forests.

The amendment was agreed to.

to the credit of miscellaneous receipts.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed. PROTECTION OF FOREST LANDS, ETC.

The bill (S. 1344) to amend an act entitled "An act to provide for the protection of forest lands, for the reforestation of denuded areas, for the extension of national forests, and for other purposes, in order to promote the continuous production of timber on lands chiefly suitable therefor," approved June 4, 1924, was considered as in Committee of the Whole. The bill had been reported from the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry with amendments, on page 2, line 3, after the words "distribution of," to strike out "forest tree"; in line 4, after the word "plants," to insert "of forest trees, shrubs, and other beneficial forms of vegetation"; in line 6, after the word "belts," to insert "forests"; in line 7, after the word "lands," to strike out and" and insert "or"; in line 8, after the word "forests," to insert "or other beneficial vegetative cover in line 9, after word "lands," to strike out "owned by any,' and insert "in"; in the same line, after the word "county," to strike out "or municipality" and insert "municipal "; in line 10, after the word "or," to strike out "upon privately owned land" and insert "private ownership"; in line 14, after the word "that," to strike out "forest tree" and insert "such"; in line 17, after the word "timber," to strike out "thereon," and insert "or establishing a vegetative cover beneficial to water conservation thereon"; and in line 18, after the word "that," to insert "from any sums appropriated for carrying out the provisions of this section"; so as to make the bill read:

Be it enacted, etc., That section 4 of an act entitled "An act to provide for the protection of forest lands, for the reforestation of denuded areas, for the extension of national forests, and for other purposes, in order to promote the continuous production of timber on lands chiefly suitable therefor," approved June 4, 1924, be amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 4. That the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized and directed to cooperate with the various States in the procurement, production, and distribution of seeds and plants of forest trees, shrubs, and other beneficial forms of vegetation for the purpose of establishing windbreaks, shelter belts, forests, and farm wood lots upon denuded or nonforested lands, or for the purpose of establishing forests or other beneficial vegetative cover upon lands in State, county, municipal, or private ownership situated on watersheds from which water is secured for domestic, irrigation, or industrial use within such cooperating States, under such conditions and requirements as he may prescribe, to the end that such seeds or plants so procured, produced, or distributed shall be used effectively for planting denuded or nonforested lands in the cooperating States and growing timber or establishing a vegetative cover beneficial to water conservation thereon: Provided, That from any sums appropriated for carrying out the provisions of this section, the amount expended by the Federal Government in cooperation with any State during any fiscal year for such purposes shall not exceed the amount expended by the State for the same purposes during the same fiscal year. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated annually, out of money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, not more than $100,000 to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the provisions of this section."

The amendments were agreed to.

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended and the amendments were concurred in.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

BEAL NURSERY AT EAST TAWAS, MICH.

The bill (H. R. 10374) for the acquisition of lands for an addition to the Beal Nursery at East Tawas, Mich., was considered as in the Committee of the Whole. The bill had been reported from the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry with an amendment to strike out all after the enacting clause and insert:

That the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized to expend, from the appropriation for planting trees on national forests during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1929, and/or from the appropriation for cooperation with States during the same fiscal year under the provisions of section 4 of the act of June 7, 1924 (43 Stats., 653), as amended,

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the The amendment was ordered to be engrossed and the bill to be read a third time.

The bill was read the third time and passed. The title was amended so as to read: "A bill authorizing the acquisition of land and water rights for forest tree nurseries."

THE FOREIGN SERVICE

The bill (S. 4382) to amend the act (Public, No. 135, 68th Cong.), approved May 24, 1924, entitled "An act for the reorganization and improvement of the Foreign Service of the United States, and for other purposes," was announced as next in order.

Mr. FESS. That is a very important bill and is quite lengthy. I do not think it ought to be passed under the five-minute rule when we are considering unobjected bills on the calendar. The VICE PRESIDENT. Objection being made, the bill will go over.

Mr. MOSES. Mr. President, wait a moment, please. I can say to the Senator from Ohio that this bill represents the work of a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations which has diligently pursued the subject since the time of the introduction of a resolution by the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. HARRISON] in December. It has probably had a more extended hearing than almost any measure that has been before the Senate at this session. The subcommittee was unanimous in its report to the full committee, unanimous in making the draft of the bill as reported to the full committee, and the full committee, after going over the bill, section by section, was unanimous in reporting it; and I can assure the Senator from Ohio, whose presence we did not have immediately on the Committee on Foreign Relations, that there have been no injustices done by this bill but that the bill makes a great step in advance toward remedying many conditions which are intolerable under the administration of the act of May 24, 1924. I implore the Senator to withdraw his objection.

Mr. WARREN. I hope the Senator may be allowed to give some little explanation of the bill.

Mr. MOSES. Briefly, the so-called Rogers Act, which was designed to provide in the entire Foreign Service a single list of officers, with promotion by seniority and merit, provoked in its operation a great deal of opposition and a great deal of complaint and a very great deterioration of the morale of the Foreign Service, to such an extent that when the operations of the act were crowned by the appointment on one day of four men as chiefs of mission, three of whom served on the personnel board, it became evident that something ought to be done to correct conditions which exist.

Mr. FESS. Mr. President, if the Senator will permit me, the Rogers Act did not pass for over three years. It had been pending before both bodies for a long time, and I do not like to allow a bill of 27 sections amending that act to be passed without even any discussion.

Mr. MOSES. I can say to the Senator that, while the bill has 27 sections, it is an amendment of the Rogers Act and adopts the language of that act and does nothing to it except to make certain changes, which I can speedily explain to the Senator from Ohio.

The principal change is to take the subject matter of promotions in the Foreign Service out of the hands of men who are themselves in the Foreign Service and who may benefit by their action by setting up a bureau of personnel in the Department of State, to be in charge of an additional Secretary of State,

who shall not be a Foreign Service officer nor have been a Foreign Service officer within two years of the time of his appointment; so that nobody concerned in promotion in the Foreign Service, following the passage of the bill now under consideration, can himself possibly benefit by any action which may be taken. We have found that of the nine men who from time to time have made up the personnel board under the Executive order issued pursuant to the enactment of the so-called Rogers Act, every man who has ever served for any time with that group has had promotions for himself, some of them three or four times, and, I think, the great majority of them at least twice.

Mr. FESS. Does this bill have the approval of the State Department?

Mr. MOSES. This bill has the approval of those officers of the State Department who have most to do with promotions. There is opposition to the bill in some quarters in the State Department.

Mr. SACKETT. Has it the approval of the Secretary of State? Mr. MOSES. I am not sure. The principle of the bill, keeping promotions out of the hands of the board as it now exists, certainly has his approval. Whether the details of the bill have his approval or not I do not know. But, Mr. President, I have taken the position with reference to the bill that if we have general approval of the executives of the State Department who have had most to do with the matter of the personnel of the Foreign Service, that was sufficient, inasmuch as they are the permanent officers of the department who have been administering the Rogers law and who will have to act under the existing statutes. At any rate, Mr. President, I do not deem it to be of prime importance that we should have, for a new measure, the approval of those who have maladministered a previous measure.

Mr. KING. Mr. President, will the Senator permit an inquiry?

Mr. MOSES. Oh, yes, indeed.

Mr. KING. Does this bill provide for the demotion of what some have said was a clique which it is alleged have controlled promotions in the State Department, and also promoted themselves? The Senator knows against whom charges have been made. There are, it is alleged, five or six men, a sort of Harvard association, who, some think, have tried to run the State Department.

Mr. MOSES. In behalf of my colleague [Mr. KEYES], who is a graduate of Harvard College, I shall have to take exception to some of the language used by the Senator from Utah. I am not sure that this bill will provide for the demotion of any of the individuals under criticism by the Senator from Utah, and who have been under criticism before the subcommittee which drafted this measure; but it certainly will put an end to some of the practices in the State Department to which the

Senator from Utah has reference.

Mr. FESS. Mr. President, there has been enough said about that so that I do not want to see the bill passed without discussion.

Mr. MOSES. We can have discussion about it to-night, if the Senator from Ohio is willing.

Mr. FESS. The statements that have been made back and forth as to cliques in the State Department I think are pretty serious, and we do not want to pass a bill without any consideration of it under the unopposed rule.

Mr. HARRISON. Mr. President, I hope the Senator will not object to the consideration of this bill. The bill was drafted and considered by the full committee after the subcommittee had gone into the matter fully after weeks of investigation. I do not think it is obnoxious to the State Department. We know that certain men high up in the State Department approve it. It will help the morale of the whole Consular Service, and this seems to be a very good opportunity to pass it. Mr. FESS. Not very, to-night.

In

Mr. HARRISON. The bill was unanimously reported from the Foreign Relations Committee after full consideration. answer to the question propounded by the Senator from Utah as to whether it demotes the clique, I will state that it abolishes the clique that once controlled the Consular Service. We think it will work wonders.

Mr. KING. The Diplomatic Service rather than the Consular Service.

Mr. HARRISON. Well, the Consular and Diplomatic Service. Mr. PITTMAN. Mr. President, I do not know whether the Senator from Ohio is suspicious of the subcommittee or not, but the other members of the Foreign Relations Committee will indorse the action of the subcommittee in this particular matter, if that is the cause of his objection.

Mr. WALSH of Montana. Mr. President, I feel like saying, in support of the statement made by the Senator from New Hampshire, that after this bill was presented to the full committee by the subcommittee it had the very careful consideration of the full committee, which went over the bill word by word, and made some alterations in it. It was very carefully considered, and was reported unanimously; and we all felt that it would go far to remove serious criticisms that have been directed against the personnel of the State Department.

Mr. HARRISON. Mr. President, may I say further to the Senator from Ohio that in the consideration of this matter we did not permit politics to be injected into it. We brought these people here from various parts of the country to appear before the subcommittee. There has been no criticism of the State Department before the subcommittee that conducted the in

vestigation nor before the full committee. There is not now. We have merely tried to help the morale of the Consular and Diplomatic Services, and I believe we will do it. I dare say there is not a man in the Consular Service to-day who would not indorse this bill, and who does not believe that it will do what we think it will do.

Mr. REED of Pennsylvania. Mr. President, the bill accomplishes one thing that the Consular Service has very properly criticized in the old plan of the Foreign Service. In the past there has been very little opportunity for those officers who went into the Diplomatic Service to learn anything about the Consular Service. Now, for the first time, by statute we require that every officer who takes a position in the Diplomatic Service shall have had at least five years' service in the consular branch of the service. It will go very far toward removing what has seemed to many people to be a snobbish distinction between the consuls and the diplomatic officers in the Foreign Service.

Another hardship which the bill corrects, which, I think, has been called to the attention of most Senators, is that it permits these Foreign Service officers, particularly of the lower classes, who are on far-distant stations, and who can not possibly, out of their salaries, afford to return to the United States for the brief vacation period allowed them each year, to consolidate those leaves over a period of as much as four years. You can readily imagine how a consul in some town in China is quite unable to afford the trip home for a 30-day holiday in the home country; but by allowing him to accumulate his leave for the four years it is worth while for him to save up and make the trip.

That is a hardship that I think has been called to the attention of many Senators in the past.

Mr. FESS. Mr. President, my objection to the bill is because it is a voluminous statute. It in a sense is attacking, as I thought, the State Department. I did not like to have a measure of this sort go through without discussion. I have confidence, of course, in the judgment of these men who have thus expressed themselves on the necessity and the wisdom of the My only point was legislation; and I am amenable to reason. not to let it go through without discussion. I assume that these Senators would not make statements that are not supported by the facts. For that reason I am going to withdraw my objection.

Whole, proceeded to consider the bill, which had been reported There being no objection, the Senate, as in Committee of the from the Committee on Foreign Relations, with amendments.

The amendments were, on page 2, line 19, after the word "follows," to strike out “(the following is new)"; on page 3, line 10, after the word "may," to strike out "have accrued,' and insert accrue"; on page 4, to strike out lines 3 to 16, both inclusive; on page 11, line 10, to strike out "class 1" and insert "Class I"; on page 20, line 19, after the word “ appointed," to insert "annually"; in the same line, after the word State," to strike out "who shall be members of the board for one, two, and three years, respectively"; in line 22, after the words It shall be the," to strike out "sole and exclusive"; on page 21, line 4, after "Sec. 24," to strike out "That it shall be the function of" and insert "The Bureau of"; in line 5, before the word "Personnel," to strike out "The Bureau of"; in the same line, after the word "Personnel," to strike out "Bureau shall be solely responsible for the accuracy other," and insert " shall assemble and be the custodian of all"; in line 10, after the words "shall be," to strike out "soley and insert solely"; in line 12, after the word "Such," to strike out "record" and insert "records"; in line 13, after the word additions," to strike out "in them"; on page 22, line 20, after the word "the," to strike out Personnel"; on page 23, line 11, after the word "Except," to strike out "for" and insert "under"; on the same page, line 19, after the word "officer," to insert "without regard to age or length of service"; in line 21, after the word State," to strike out "without regard to age or length of service"; on page 24, line 6, after the word "paragraphs," to strike out "I" and insert “(i)”; in line 11, before the word "Bureau," to strike out "Personnel," and after the word Bureau" to insert "of Personnel"; on page 25, to strike out lines 4 to 6, inclusive; and in line 7, to change the number of the section from 28 to 27; so as to make the bill read:

66

66

66

Be it enacted, etc., That the act (Public, No. 135, 68th Cong.), approved May 24, 1924, entitled "An act for the reorganization and improvement of the Foreign Service of the United States, and for other purposes," be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. That hereafter the Diplomatic and Consular Service of the United States shall be known as the Foreign Service of the United States.

"SEC. 2. That the official designation Foreign Service officer,' as employed throughout this act, shall be deemed to denote permanent officers in the Foreign Service below the grade of minister, all of whom are subject to promotion on merit and who may be appointed to either diplomatic or consular positions or assigned to serve in the Department of State subject to section 14 of this act, at the discretion of the President.

"SEC. 3. That the officers in the Foreign Service shall hereafter be graded and classified as follows with the salaries of each class herein affixed thereto, but not exceeding in number for each class a proportion of the total number of officers in the service represented in the following percentage limitations :

"Ambassadors and ministers as now or hereafter provided; Foreign Service officers as follows: Class I (13 per cent), $8,000 to $9,000; Class II (17 per cent), $7,000 to $8,000; Class III (24 per cent), $5,000 to $7,000; Class IV, $4,000 to $5,000; unclassified, $2,500 to $4,000: Provided, however, That as many Foreign Service officers above Class III as may be required for the purpose of inspection may be detailed by the Secretary of State for that purpose.

"On the date this act takes effect officers shall be reclassified as follows:

"Officers in Classes I and II, as officers in Class I; officers in Classes III and IV, as officers in Class II; officers in Classes V and VI, as officers in Class III; officers in Classes VII and VIII, as officers in Class IV; and officers in Class IX, as unclassified officers; but no officer shall receive less salary through such classification than he is now receiving nor shall he receive any increase of salary through such classification except such periodic increase as may accrue to him under section 18 of this act.

"SEC. 4. That Foreign Service officers may be commissioned as diplomatic or consular officers or both: Provided, That any officer who entered the Foreign Service subsequent to July 1, 1924, shall serve five years as a consular officer before promotion to Class I except that he may be excused from not more than two years of such service if, in the opinion of the Secretary of State on the recommendation of the Assistant Secretary in charge of the Foreign Service, the completion of such term of five years as consul will not be in the interest of the Government: Provided further, That all such appointments shall be made by and with the advice and consent of the Senate: And provided further, That all official acts of such officers while serving under diplomatic or consular commissions in the Foreign Service shall be performed under their respective commissions as secretaries or as consular officers.

"SEC. 5. That hereafter appointments to the position of Foreign Service officer shall be made after examination and a suitable period of probation or after five years of continuous service in the Department of State, by transfer therefrom under such rules and regulations as the President may prescribe, or after 10 years of satisfactory service as clerk in a mission or consulate: Provided, That no candidate shall be eligible for examination for Foreign Service officer who is not an American citizen and who shall not have been such at least 15 years: Provided further, That reinstatement of Foreign Service officers separated from the classified service by reason of appointment to some other position in the Government service may be made by Executive order of the President under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe.

"All appointments of Foreign Service officers shall be by commission to a class and not by commission to a particular post, and such officers shall be assigned to posts and may be transferred from one post to another by order of the President as the interests of the service may require Provided, That the classification of secretaries in the Diplomatic Service and of consular officers is hereby abolished without, however, in anywise impairing the validity of the present commissions of secretaries and consular officers.

"SEC. 6. That section 5 of the act of February 5, 1915 (Public No. 242), is hereby repealed.

"SEC. 7. That the Secretary of State is directed to report from time to time to the President, along with his recommendations, the names of those Foreign Service officers who by reason of efficient service have demonstrated special capacity for promotion to the grade of minister and the names of those Foreign Service officers and employees and officers and employees in the Department of State and clerks at missions and consulates 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 taking the prescribed examination to have fitness for appointment to the service.

"That the grade of consular assistant is hereby abolished. "SEC. 8. That sections 1697 and 1698 of the Revised Statutes are hereby repealed.

"SEC. 9. Every secretary, consul general, consul, vice consul of career, or Foreign Service officer, before he receives his commission or enters upon the duties of his office, shall give to the United States a bond, in such form as the President shall prescribe, with such sureties, who shall be permanent residents of the United States, as the Secretary of State shall approve, in a penal sum not less than the annual com

pensation allowed to such officer, conditioned for the true and faithful accounting for, paying over, and delivering up of all fees, moneys, goods, effects, books, records, papers, and other property which shall come to his hands or to the hands of any other person to his use as such officer under any law now or hereafter enacted, and for the true and faithful performance of all other duties now or hereafter lawfully imposed upon him as such officer: Provided, That the operation of no existing bond shall in anywise be impaired by the provisions of this act: Provided further, That such bond shall cover by its stipulations all official acts of such officer, whether commissioned as diplomatic or consular officer. The bonds herein mentioned shall be deposited with the Secretary of the Treasury.

"SEC. 10. That the provisions of section 4 of the act of April 5, 1906, relative to the powers, duties, and prerogatives of consuls general at large are hereby made applicable to the Foreign Service officers detailed for the purpose of inspection, who shall, under the direction of the Secretary of State, inspect in a substantially uniform manner the work of diplomatic and consular offices.

"SEC. 11. That the provisions of sections 8 and 10 of the act of April 5, 1906, relative to official fees and the method of accounting therefor shall apply to diplomatic officers below the grade of minister, and cansular officers.

"SEC. 12. That the President is hereby authorized to grant to diplomatic and consular officers representation allowances and rent or post allowances wherever the cost of living may be proportionately so high that, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, such allowances are necessary to enable such diplomatic or consular officers to carry on their work efficiently, out of any money which may be appropriated for such purpose from time to time by Congress, the expenditure of such representation allowances or rent allowances to be accounted for in detail to the Department of State quarterly under such rules and regulations as the President may prescribe, and by the Secretary to be reported annually to Congress.

"SEC. 13. Appropriations are authorized for the salary of a private secretary to each ambassador who shall be appointed by the ambassador and hold office at his pleasure.

"SEC. 14. That any Foreign Service officer may be assigned for duty in the Department of State without loss of 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. Any Foreign Service officer of whatever class detailed for special duty not at his post or in the Department of State shall be paid his actual and necessary expenses for travel and not exceeding an average of $8 per day for subsistence during such special detail: Provided, That such special duty shall not continue for more than 60 days, unless in the case of trade conferences or international gatherings, congresses, or conferences, when such subsistence expenses shall run only during the period thereof and the necessary period of transit to and from the place of gathering: Provided further, That the Secretary of State is authorized to prescribe a per diem allowance not exceeding $6, in lieu of subsistence for Foreign Service officers on special duty or Foreign Service inspectors.

"SEC. 15. That the Secretary of State is authorized, whenever he deems it to be in the public interest, to order to the United States on his statutory leave of absence any Foreign Service officer or vice consul of career who has performed three years or more of continuous service abroad: Provided, That the expenses of transportation and subsistence of such officers and their immediate families, in traveling from their posts to their homes in the United States and return, shall be paid under the same rules and regulations applicable in the case of officers going to and returning from their posts under orders of the Secretary of State when not on leave: And provided further, That while in the United States the services of such officers shall be available for trade conference work or for such duties in the Department of State as the Secretary of State may prescribe, but the time of such work or duties shall not be counted as leave.

"Leave with pay shall be of two kinds: (1) Leave as granted together with an additional allowance of a reasonable transit time between the officer's post and his residence in the United States, and (2) simple leave without such allowance.

"Simple leave with pay may be taken annually, if no other leave is taken in that year, for not more than 30 days in any one year, except, in the discretion of the President, in the case of illness of an officer or of a member of his immediate family or other exceptional circumstances.

"Simple leave not taken when due may be accumulated and taken not to exceed 60 days in any one year, but leave with transit time allowance may not be accumulated with simple leave and the whole taken as simple leave.

"Leave with pay with a transit time allowance may be taken biennially, if no other leave is taken in that year, for not more than 60 days in any one year, except, in the discretion of the Secretary of State, in the case of (1) officers at remote posts, and (2) illness of an officer or of a member of his immediate family, or other exceptional circumstances.

"Leave with transit time allowance not taken when due may be accumulated separately, when it may be taken not to exceed 120 days in the fourth calendar year, or it may be accumulated, together with simple leave, and the two taken together as leave with transit time allowance not to exceed 120 days in the third calendar year, after two years without any leave of either sort, or not to exceed 180 days in the fourth calendar year, after three years without any leave of either sort.

"No Foreign Service officer shall be absent from his post with pay for more than 48 hours without permission, except as provided herein. “All rules and regulations governing the leaves of Foreign Service officers shall be uniform.

"Section 1742 of the Revised Statutes is hereby repealed.

"SEC. 16. That the part of the act of July 1, 1916 (Public, No. 131), which authorizes the President to designate and assign any secretary of Class I as counselor of embassy or legation, is hereby amended to read as follows:

“Provided, That the President may, whenever he considers it advisable so to do, designate and assign any Foreign Service officer as counselor of embassy or legation.'

"SEC. 17. That within the discretion of the President, any Foreign Service officer may be assigned to act as commissioner, chargé d'affaires, minister resident, or diplomatic agent for such period as the public interests may require without loss of grade, class, or salary: Provided, however, That no such officer shall receive more than one salary.

"SEC. 18. That for such time as any Foreign Service officer shall be lawfully authorized to act as chargé d'affaires ad interim or 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 assigned, he shall, if his salary is less than one-half that of such principal officer, receive in addition to his salary as Foreign Service officer compensation equal to the difference between such salary and one-half of the salary provided by law for the ambassador, minister, or principal consular officer, as the case may be.

"SEC. 19. The President is authorized to prescribe rules and regulations for the establishment of a Foreign Service retirement and disability system to be administered under the direction of the Secretary of State and in accordance with the following principles, to wit:

"(a) The Secretary of State shall submit annually a comparative report showing all receipts and disbursements on account of refunds, allowances, and annuities, together with the total number of persons receiving annuities and the amounts paid them, and shall submit annually estimates of appropriations necessary to continue this section in full force and such appropriations are hereby authorized: Provided, That in no event shall the aggregate total appropriations exceed the aggregate total of the contributions of the Foreign Service officers theretofore made, and accumulated interest thereon.

"(b) There is hereby created a special fund to be known as the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund.

"(c) Five per cent of the basic salary of all Foreign Service officers eligible to retirement shall be contributed to the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund, and the Secretary of the Treasury is directed on the date on which this act takes effect to cause such deductions to be made and the sums transferred on the books of the Treasury Department to the credit of the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund for the payment of annuities, refunds, and allowances: Provided, That all basic salaries in excess of $9,000 per annum shall be treated as $9,000.

"(d) When any Foreign Service officer has reached the age of 65 years and rendered at least 15 years of service he shall be retired: Provided, That the President may, in his discretion, retain any such officer on active duty for such period, not exceeding 5 years, as he may deem for the interests of the United States: Provided further, That if any such officer shall have served 30 years he may be retired at his own request.

"(e) Annuities shall be paid to retired Foreign Service officers under the following classification, based upon length of service and at the following percentages of the average annual basic salary for the 10 years next preceding the date of retirement: Class A, 30 years or more, 60 per cent; class B, from 27 to 30 years, 54 per cent; class C, from 24 to 27 years, 48 per cent; class D, from 21 to 24 years, 42 per cent; class E, from 18 to 21 years, 36 per cent; class F, from 15 to 18 years, 30 per cent.

"(f) Those officers who retire before having contributed for each year of service shall have withheld from their annuities to the credit of the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund such proportion of 5 per cent as the number of years in which they did not contribute bears to the total length of service.

"(g) The Secretary of the Treasury is directed to invest from time to time in interest-bearing securities of the United States such portions of the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund as in his judgment may not be immediately required for the payment of annuities, refunds, and allowances, and the income derived from such investments shall constitute a part of said fund.

"(h) None of the moneys mentioned in this section shall be assignable, either in law or equity, or be subject to execution, levy, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process.

"(1) In case an annuitant dies without having received in annuities an amount equal to the total amount of his contributions from salary with interest thereon at 4 per cent per annum, compounded annually up to the time of his death, the excess of said accumulated contributions over the said annuity payments shall be paid to his or her legal representatives; and in case a Foreign Service officer shall die without having reached the retirement age the total amount of his contribution with accrued interest shall be paid to his legal representatives.

"(j) That any Foreign Service officer who before reaching the age of retirement becomes totally disabled for useful and efficient service by reason of disease or injury not due to vicious habits, intemperance, or willful misconduct on his part, shall, upon his own application or upon order of the President, be retired on an annuity under paragraph (e) of this section: Provided, however, That in each case such disability shall be determined by the report of a duly qualified physician or surgeon designated by the Secretary of State to conduct the examination: Provided, further, That unless the disability be permanent, a like examination shall be made annually in order to determine the degree of disability, and the payment of annuity shall cease from the date of the medical examination showing recovery.

"Fees for examinations under this provision, together with reasonable traveling and other expenses incurred in order to submit to examination, shall be paid out of the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund.

"When the annuity is discontinued under this provision, before the annuitant has received a sum equal to the total amount of his contributions with accrued interest, the difference shall be paid to him or to his legal representatives.

"(k) The President is authorized from time to time to establish, by Executive order, a list of places which by reason of climatic or other extreme conditions are to be classed as unhealthful posts, and each year of duty subsequent to January 1, 1900, at such posts, while so classed, inclusive of regular leaves of absence, shall be counted as one year and a half, and so on in like proportion in reckoning the length of service for the purpose of retirement.

"(1) Whenever a Foreign Service officer becomes separated from the service except for disability before reaching the age of retirement the total amount of contribution from his salary with interest shall be returned to him.

"(m) The Secretary of State is authorized to expend from surplus money to the credit of the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund an amount not exceeding $5,000 for the expenses necessary in carrying out the provisions of this section, including actuarial advice.

"(n) Any diplomatic secretary or consular officer who has been or any Foreign Service officer who may hereafter be promoted from the classified service to the grade of ambassador or minister, or appointed to a position in the Department of State, shall be entitled to all the benefits of this section in the same manner and under the same conditions as Foreign Service officers.

"(o) For the purposes of this act the period of service shall be computed from the date of original oath of office as diplomatic secretary, consul general, consul, vice consul, deputy consul, consular assistant, consular agent, commercial agent, interpreter, or student interpreter, and shall include periods of service at different times as either a diplomatic or consular officer, or while on assignment to the Department of State, or on special duty, or service in another department or establishment of the Government, but all periods of separation from the service and so much of any period of leave of absence without pay as may exceed six months shall be excluded: Provided, That service in the Department of State or as clerk in a mission or consulate prior to appointment as a Foreign Service officer may be included in the period of service, in which case the officer shall pay into the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund a special contribution equal to 5 per cent of his annual salary for each year of such employment, with interest thereon to date of payment compounded annually at 4 per cent. "SEC. 20. In the event of public emergency any retired Foregin Service officer may be recalled temporarily to active service by the President, and while so serving he shall be entitled in lieu of his retirement allowance to the full pay of the class in which he is temporarily serving.

"SEC. 21. That all provisions of law heretofore enacted relating to diplomatic secretaries and to consular officers, which are not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby made applicable to Foreign Service officers when they are designated for service as diplomatic or consular officers, and that all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

"SEC. 22. That the appropriations contained in Title I of the act entitled 'An act making appropriations for the Departments of State and Justice and for the judiciary and for the Departments of Commerce and Labor for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1929, and for other purposes,' for such compensation and expenses as are affected by the provisions of this act are made available and may be applied toward the payment of the compensation and expenses herein provided for, except that no part of such appropriations shall be available for the payment of annuities to retired Foreign Service officers: Provided, That thereafter all estimates and requests for appropriations for the

Foreign Service and appropriations therefor shall be made for Foreign Service establishments in countries or geographical or political areas, but upon necessity therefor arising sums appropriated may be transferred from establishment to establishment within the country or geographical or political area for which appropriated.

"SEC. 23. That there is hereby established in the Department of State a bureau of personnel to be under the supervision of an additional Assistant Secretary of State, to be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, who shall not be when appointed or for two years prior thereto a Foreign Service officer. Such Assistant Secretary of State shall have no other duties assigned to him. The salary of such Assistant Secretary of State, as well as that of the Undersecretary of State, the four Assistant Secretaries of State, and the legal adviser of the Department of State, shall be at the rate of $10,000 per annum.

"SEC. 24. (a) That the Secretary of State is authorized (1) in accordance with the civil service laws to appoint, and, in accordance with the classification act of 1923, and later amendments thereto, to fix the compensation of, such officers and employees in the bureau of personnel as may be necessary for the administration of this act, or (2) to assign to the bureau of personnel from other bureaus or divisions in the Department of State such officers and employees as he deems advisable Provided, That no person in an executive position in the bureau shall be of lower classification than grade 5-senior profession of grade 12-chief administrative, or in corresponding grades of later acts or amendments. No officer in the Foreign Service of the United States shall be appointed or assigned to the bureau of personnel nor shall any person be appointed or assigned thereto within two years following service as a Foreign Service officer, nor shall service in the bureau of personnel be accounted service in the Department of State for the purposes of appointment to the position of Foreign Service officer, or as service in some other position in the Government for reinstatement in the Foreign Service, as provided in section 5 of this

act.

"(b) The Secretary of State is authorized to make such expenditures (including expenditures for personal services and rent at the seat of government and elsewhere, and for law books, books of reference, and periodicals) as may be necessary for the administration of this act.

"(c) There shall be a board of selection for Foreign Service officers composed of the Assistant Secretary, who shall be chairman, one member of the personnel office, who shall be secretary, and three other competent persons to be appointed annually by the Secretary of State, not more than one of whom may be a Foreign Service officer. It shall be the duty of the board of selection to recommend promotions in the Foreign Service and to furnish to the Secretary of State a list of Foreign Service officers of class I who have demonstrated special capacity for promotion to the grade of minister. To perform the duties hereinbefore set forth the board of selection shall be convened not later than December 1 of each year."

"SEC. 24. The bureau of personnel shall assemble and be the custodian of all information in regard to the character, ability, efficiency, experience, and general availability of Foreign Service officers. The Assistant Secretary of State supervising the personnel bureau shall be solely responsible for the accuracy and impartiality of the efficiency records of Foreign Service officers. Such records shall be kept so that no alterations, erasures, withdrawals, or additions can be made without being apparent and every Foreign Service officer shall be entitled to see his own record upon request by him. No unfavorable entry shall be made on an officer's record except together with the officer's reply thereto and the conclusion thereon of the Assistant Secretary supervising the personnel bureau. Not later than November 1 of each year the personnel office shall, under the supervision of the Assistant Secretary of State, prepare a list in which all Foreign Service officers shall be graded in accordance with their relative efficiency and value to the service. In this list officers shall be graded as excellent, high average, average or poor, with such further subclassification as the Assistant Secretary shall find necessary: Provided, That this list shall not become effective in so far as it effects promotion until it has been considered by and has the approval of the board of selection herein before provided for: Provided further, That this list shall not be changed within a year after it has been prepared in so far as it effects promotion except for unusual cause. From this list of all Foreign Service officers, in the order of their ascertained merit within classes, recommendations for promotion shall be made. Recommendations shall also be made, in order of merit, for the unclassified grade as vice consuls, candidates who have successfully passed the examinations. All such recommendations shall be submitted to the Secretary of State, who shall transmit them to the President for submission to the Senate, if he see fit.

"The correspondence and records of the bureau of personnel shall be confidential except to the President, Secretary of State, the Assistant Secretary of State supervising the bureau, such of its employees as may be assigned to work on such correspondence and records, and the individual Foreign Service officers concerned, and except to proper administrative officers of the Department of State, concerning the abilities and capacities of officers for special work or specific posts.

"SEC. 25. That notwithstanding the provisions of section 3 of this act all Foreign Service officers shall, at the expiration of each year of service in any class after this act takes effect, receive an increase of salary of $100, except that no officer shall receive a salary above the maximum of his class. Foreign Service officers on the date this act takes effect shall receive an increase in salary of $100 for each full year served continuously in any class, effective on the date this act takes effect, except that no officer shall receive a salary greater than the maximum salary for his class. Except under extraordinary circumstances which shall be reported to the President by the Secretary of State, no Foreign Service officer shall be promoted from one class to another until he shall have served four years in the class to which he was admitted.

"If after 10 years of continuous service in the unclassified grade or 8 years' continuous service in any other class below Class I any officer is not recommended for promotion to the next higher class, such officer, without regard to age or length of service, shall be retired from the service, after a hearing by the Secretary of State, upon an annuity equal to 25 per cent of his salary at the time of retirement, in the case of officers over 45 years of age or in the case of officers under 45 years of age with a bonus of 1 year's salary at the time of his retirement, either annuity or 1 year's salary to be payable out of the Foreign Service officers' retirement and disability fund and except as herein provided, subject to the same provisions and limitations as other annuities payable out of such fund; but no return of contributions shall be made under paragraph (i) or L of section 19 of this act in the case of any Foreign Service officer retired under the provisions of this act. Whenever it is determined by the Assistant Secretary supervising the bureau of personnel that the efficiency rating of an officer is poor, thereby meaning below the standard required for the service, and such determination has been confirmed by the Secretary of State, the officer shall be notified thereof, and if, after a reasonable period of not less than one year, the rating of such officer continues to be found poor by the Assistant Secretary and such finding is confirmed by the Secretary of State after a hearing accorded the officer, such officer shall be separated from the service with the annuity or bonus provided in this section, but no officer so separated from the service shall receive the said annuity or bonus unless at the time of separation he shall have served at least 15 years. He shall, however, have returned to him the full sum of his contribution to the annuity fund, with interest thereon at 4 per cent.

"SEC. 26. That nothing in this act shall be construed to reduce the salary of any Foreign Service officer upon promotion to a higher class. "SEC. 27. That this act shall take effect July 1, 1928."

The amendments were agreed to.

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendments were concurred in.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

MARION BANTA

The bill (H. R. 10067) for the relief of Marion Banta was considered as in Committee of the Whole.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

R. E. HANSEN

The bill (S. 3794) for the relief of R. E. Hansen was considered as in Committee of the Whole.

The bill had been reported from the Committee on Indian Affairs with an amendment, to strike out all after the enacting clause and to insert:

That the sum of $2,480.65 is hereby authorized to be appropriated out of funds received from the sale of stored water in the Blackfoot Reservoir, Fort Hall irrigation project, Idaho, to the North Side Canal Co., to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to pay R. E. Hansen, Blackfoot, Idaho, for damages incurred in the destruction of his crop of hay and oats by the overflow of his land on account of the operation of said irrigation project.

The amendment was agreed to.

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendment was concurred in.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

COWLITZ TRIBE OF INDIANS

The bill (H. R. 167) to amend the act of February 12, 1925 (Public, No. 402, 68th Cong.), so as to permit the Cowlitz Tribe of Indians to file suit in the Court of Claims under said act was considered as in Committee of the Whole.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

ARCH L. GREGG

The bill (S. 3595) for the relief of Arch L. Gregg was considered as in Committee of the Whole.