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REGULATIONS

FOR THE

CONSULAR SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES.

ARTICLE I.

Classes of Consular Officers.

1.. The Consular Service of the United States consists of Classification. Agents and Consuls-General, Consuls-General, Vice-ConsulsGeneral, Deputy Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, Deputy Consuls, Commercial Agents, Vice-Commercial Agents, Deputy Commercial Agents, Consular Agents. Consular Clerks, Interpreters, Marshals, and Office-Clerks.

AGENT AND CONSUL-GENERAL.

2.. The only officer of this grade is the Agent and ConsulGeneral at Cairo. He enjoys a quasi-diplomatic position, so far as the Porte may consent thereto.

CONSULS-GENERAL.

Agent and Con -ul-General.

3..Consulates-General are established by law at Berlin, Consuls General. Calcutta, Constantinople, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Halifax, Havana, Kanagawa, London, Melbourne, Mexico, Montreal, Paris, Rio Janeiro, Rome, Shanghai, Saint Petersburg, and Vienna.

pondence.

4.. In Austria-Hungary, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Consular corres Italy, China, Russia, Turkey, Japan, and Cuba, Consuls and Commercial Agents will transmit their correspondence, reports, and accounts to the Department of State, under open cover to the respective Consuls-General. Those at Aix la Chapelle, Barmen, Cologne, Crefeld, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Munich, Nuremberg and Sonneberg will transmit their cor

Supervision.

1n Cuba.

Canada,

respondence to the Department, under open cover to the Consul-General at Frankfort. Those at Hamburg, Bremen, Brunswick, Leipsic, Breslau, Geestemünde, Stettin, Dresden, Konigsberg, and Chemnitz will transmit their correspondence in like manner through the Consul-General at Berlin. The Consuls at Rio Grande del Sud and Santos will transmit their correspondence to the Department open, through the Consul-General at Rio de Janeiro; and the other Consuls in Brazil will send copies of such of their dispatches as are of special interest or importance to the same officer. The Consuls in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand will send their correspondence directly to the Department, except that which relates to leaves of absence and the nomination of subordinate officers, and will send copies of all dispatches of importance to the Consul-General at Melbourne. The Consuls-General at Calcutta and Mexico are not charged with any supervision of the Consular Officers within their jurisdiction, either as to the correspondence or the approval of applications for leaves of absence or of nominations of subordinate officers.

5. These several Consuls-General are charged with the supervision of the Consulates and Commercial Agencies respectively subordinate to them, so far as it can be exercised by correspondence, and will see that the provisions of law and of these instructions are complied with. It is desirable for the good order and convenience of the Department that they should take care that the preparation of the Consular correspondence, and of the prescribed accounts and inclosures, is in accordance with the instructions relating thereto.

6..In Cuba the correspondence with the Spanish officials at Havana will be conducted through the medium of the Consulate-General.

7..In the Dominion of Canada the Consul-General at Montreal exercises a supervision over the Consulates in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and the Consul-General at Halifax over the Consulates in the Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, and Newfoundland, but the Consular correspondence is to be ad

dressed by the Consuls by mail to the Department, except nominations for subordinate Consular Officers and requests for leaves of absence, which are to be submitted to the respective Consuls-General for approval. The Consulates in British Columbia and Manitoba are excepted from the jurisdiction of the Consul-General at Montreal.

and Bolivia.

8..In Liberia, Bolivia, Roumania, and Hayti the Consuls- Liberia, Hayti, General are accredited as full diplomatic representatives. Of these Officers the Consuls-General in Hayti and Roumania only are charged with supervisory powers. All nominations for subordinate officers in these countries and requests for leave of absence must be submitted to them for approval. 9.. The directions contained in the foregoing paragraphs Instructions to be in regard to correspondence will be carefully observed by Consular Officers, except in those cases in which special instructions have been, or shall be, given by the Department prescribing a different course.

observed.

General jurisdiction.

and 1700.

10.. All Consuls-General are further charged with the ordinary duties of a Consul within the prescribed limits of R. S., secs. 1699 their respective districts, and no one is allowed, while he holds office, to be interested in, or to transact, any business as a merchant, factor, or broker, or any other trader, or as a clerk or other agent for any such person, to, from, or within the port, place, or limits of his Consulate-General, directly or indirectly, either in his own name or through the agency of any other person.

Consuls-General.

11.. Upon application to the Department, and if it shall Visitations by be deemed proper, authority will be given to the ConsulsGeneral at Berlin, Frankfort, London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, and St. Petersburg to visit the several Consulates and Commercial Agencies in their respective jurisdictions for the purposes of inspection and report. These visits will, however, not be authorized to be made more frequently than once a year, and only upon the permission of the Department previously obtained. A like permission may also be granted to other Consuls-General, if circumstances shall at any time seem to require it. The actual and necessary traveling expenses incurred in these visitations will be

Consuls.

R. S., secs. 1700 and 1730.

Commercial

Agents.

R. S., sec. 1674.

CONSULS.

12.. Consuls are of two classes: 1st. Those who are not allowed to engage in business, and whose salaries exceed $1,000 per annum; 2d. Those who are allowed to engage in business. The former class is known as those embraced in Schedule B. The occupations in which they may not engage are the same with those forbidden to Consuls-General. The latter class of Consuls is again subdivided into-1st. Those who are salaried (known as Consuls in Schedule C), and, 2d. Those who are compensated from the fees which they receive for their services.

COMMERCIAL AGENTS.

13.. Commercial Agents are full, principal, and permanent Consular Officers as distinguished from subordinates and substitutes. As respects their powers and duties in the Consular Service of this Government, no distinction is made by statute between them and other principal officers. They differ from the latter only in rank or grade, except as to the supervisory powers conferred upon Consuls-General. They derive their functions from the same statutes as ConsulsGeneral and Consuls, and they are accordingly to be distinguished from the officer described in public law by the same title. The latter is not usually regarded by other powers as entitled to the full rank or privileges of a Consular Officer. The exigencies of the public service of the Government have from time to time made necessary the appointment of Commercial Agents of the character and with the restricted functions and privileges of such officers as known to international law, and this right is at all times reserved. In those instances, however, in which officers of this title and character have been appointed, the appointments have usually been made to countries the Government of which had not been recognized by the United States, or into which it was desired to send a confidential agent whose recognition need not be asked from the local Government. Previous to the

act of Congress of August 18, 1856, which reorganized the Consular Service, the officers appointed with the title of Commercial Agent were usually of this limited character.

That act, however, not only established their rank as a Consular Officer, but also superadded to their former powers the functions that appertain to the office of Consul.

14.. The Commercial Agent of the statute and of these regulations is, therefore, deemed to be a full Consular Officer, and entitled to enjoy all the powers, immunities, and privileges that under public law or otherwise are accorded to the Consular Office. The title of the office as representing a distinct grade in the Consular Service is peculiar to the service of the United States, and usage has established the appointment directly by the President. It is usual to ask the formal recognition and an exequatur for a Commercial Agent, from the Government to which he is accredited, as in the case of other principal officers.

VICE-CONSULS-GENERAL, VICE-CONSULS, AND VICE-COMMER-
CIAL AGENTS.

15.. Vice-Consuls-General, Vice-Consuls, and Vice-Commercial Agents are defined to be Consular Officers who shall be substituted temporarily to fill the place of Consuls-General, Consuls, and Commercial Agents, respectively, when they shall be temporarily absent or relieved from duty. They have accordingly no functions or powers when the principal officer is present at his post. Their functions, however, are coextensive with those of the principal when the latter is absent from his district, and in all cases where they are lawfully in charge of the office.

DEPUTY CONSULS-GENERAL, DEPUTY CONSULS, AND DEPUTY

COMMERCIAL AGENTS.

Are Consalar Officers.

Vice-Consuls.
R. S.. sec. 1674.

R. S. sec. 1674.

16.. Deputy Consuls-General, Deputy Consuls, and Dep- Deputy Consuls. uty Commercial Agents are Consular Officers subordinate to their principals, and exercising the powers and performing the duties within the limits of the respective offices at the same ports or places where the principals are located. They may perform their functions when the principal is absent from his district as well as when he is at his post; but they are not authorized, in the former case, to assume the responsible charge of the office, that being the duty of the Vice

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