Full and frank criticism of both classes of reports is invited from the bureau by the Department of State, and a special contact is devoted to the collection of such criticisms and their transmission to the consular officers in the field. There is an opportunity for full criticism of every consular report received by the bureau.

COOPERATION

OF THE CONSULAR SERVICE WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE IN THE PROVISION OF REPORTS UPON AGRICULTURE AND CROPS ANDIN THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE GRAIN FUTURES ACT AND OF THE PLANT ANDANIMAL QUARANTINE.

The Department of Agriculture maintains a representative in London and frequently sends abroad upon special journeys of investigation technical expertscharged with reporting upon various aspects of agriculture and crops, but it is, broadly speaking, without permanent representation abroad, and depends upon the Consular Service to represent it in the enforcement of many of its regulatory activities, as well as for investigating and reporting upon agricultural and crop conditions.

Each monthly, quarterly, and annual report from consular officers contains a section devoted to agriculture, crops, and livestock, which is supplemented from time to time by special interim reports upon timely phases of agriculture. These reports are of permanent basic character and are independent of the more specialized and exhaustive reports based upon specific questionnaires received from time to time from the Department of Agriculture. Elaborate questionnaires are, indeed, often sent to consular officers at the instance of the Department of Agriculture, and a few typical instances embrace requests for reports at certain periods of the year from all cotton producing countries of the world concerning cotton culture and production in its broader aspects, as well as data upon the acreage planted, condition of crops at times of blooming and harvesting, total production, and other factors affecting the quality of foreign cotton and competition with American cotton growers. Such reports serve not only for the information of the Department of Agriculture, but are made the basis for the compilation of a world survey and census of cotton production. Similar series of special reports have been requested and are being prepared concerning the production of peanuts and oleaginous seeds in the Far East and in the Near East; butter, cheese, and dairying in New Zealand; special phases of agricultural development in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and other Latin American countries; grain in Australia, Canada, and other grain producing countries, together with data relating to the costs of transportation from the areas of production to the seaboard for shipment; wool production in the principal woolproducing countries of the world; surveys of broomcorn production and peanut production in the principal producing countries of the world, and livestock and cattle rearing in important areas of the world.

In fact, the particular lines of agricultural development in each country abroad are covered by consular officers for the benefit of the Department of Agriculture, and copies of approximately 15,000 reports were, during 1923, sent to the Department of Agriculture.

Consular officers derive much satisfaction from the close and intimate way they represent the interests of the Department of Agriculture, which has never failed to appreciate and accord adequate recognition to their efforts and which has expressed a gratifying commendation of the value of consular reports and the other services rendered by the represenatives of the Department of State. Recently the Department of Agriculture has given special commendation of the usefulness of the Consular Service in gathering and transmitting important data for its use, and has requested permission to utilize the extensive organization of the Consular Service in a more enlarged sense for special investigations and reports covering practically all aspects of conditions abroad coming within the administrative jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture. The first questionnaires prepared in contemplation of the more effective and comprehensive cooperation between the Department of Agriculture and the Consular Service have been received and dispatched to the appropriate Consular officers, and an increasing volume of work will necessarily result from this arrangement.

In addition to the reports briefly indicated above, the Consular Service renders important assistance to the Department of Agriculture in providing information of value to it in the enforcement of the grain futures act, and an elaborate instruction during the past year was sent to consular officers at the instance of the Department of Agriculture, indicating the specific topics which should be care

fully observed and reported upon as a means of more effectively enforcing that act.

The Consular Service also represents the Department of Agriculture abroad in a cooperative capacity in the enforcement of the plant quarantine regulations, reporting by mail, or by cablegram in urgent instances, the outbreak of the plant blights which may contain elements of danger to American agricultural interests. Consular officers receive from the Department of Agriculture, through the medium of the Department of State, booklets concerning the plant quarantine, and refuse the certification of consular invoices for the shipments of plants and nursery stock to the United States except under the regulatory conditions established by the Department of Agriculture.

Consular officers are also instructed at the instance of the Department of Agriculture, to report by mail or by cablegram outbreaks of contagious diseases among foreign livestock and are guided by regulations concerning the inspection and certification of livestock as free from contagious diseases prior to certifying invoices for their shipment to the United States.

ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES FOR MANY DEPARTMENTS.

The administrative functions of consular officers cover the widest range, for with but few exceptions the various branches of our Government rely here again upon the Consular Service in so far as their activities extend to foreign countries. On behalf of the Department of State, American consuls protect American citizens and their interests, perform judicial services in extraterritorial countries, act as notaries public, afford relief to destitute American seamen, take charge of the estates of deceased American citizens, perform numerous services in connection with American passports, record vital statistics, and through the granting of visés exercise control over foreigners proceeding to the United States. During the fiscal year 1922-23, the Consular Service settled 1,037 estates, performed 90,586 passports services (applications, amendments, extensions, etc.) for American citizens, viséed 408,671 passports of aliens, and performed 167,764 notarial services.

The Treasury Department relies on consular officers for the certification of consular invoices upon which the assessment of import duties is based, the protection of the public health through the issuance of bills of health and weekly sanitary reports, information touching smuggling and evasion of the prohibition laws, investigation of and payments to beneficiaries of war-risk insurance residing abroad, etc. During the 12 months from July 1, 1922, to June 30, 1923, American consuls certified 806,817 invoices and 2,889 landing certificates, issued 39,459 bills of health, and transmitted to the United States Public Health Service 15,158 sanitary reports.

Aside from its efforts for the promotion of American trade abroad, the Consular Service cooperates in the administration of the merchant marine. Consular officers exercise in foreign ports, in so far as local law permits, much the same functions as United States Shipping Board Commissioners at home. During the fiscal year 1922-23, they dispatched 20,506 American vessels, noted 5,933 marine protests, and shipped 28,764, discharged 22,750, and relieved 3,981 seamen.

Administrative services performed for other branches of the Government include assistance to naval vessels in foreign ports in connection with the purchase of supplies and apprehension of deserters, viséing of section 6 certificates for Chinese entitled to enter the United States, enforcement of plant and animal quarantine, services to pensioners resident abroad, administration of oaths to patent and trade-mark applications, representation of Shipping Board, etc.

SERVICES FOR INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS-REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTER.

But the American consul acts not only for the Government, he represents at the same time each one of its citizens. The American traveling abroad for business or for pleasure appeals to the consul for protection, assistance, and advice; and the American at home has in the consul, as it were, a personal agent ready to perform any one of a wide range of services not inconsistent with his official duties. One of the most important of these services consists in locating and assisting missing relatives. During the fiscal year 1922-23 the Consular Service aided American citizens, either through affording protection and assistance or in obtaining information about friends and relatives in no less than 75,309 recorded cases. Immediately following the recent Japanese disaster a specially organized Japanese welfare section of the consular bureau succeeded, through consular

officers in Japan, in obtaining information touching hundreds of Americans victims and survivors.

Finally, in addition to all his varied duties as a gatherer of information, fosterer of trade, administrative officer, and protector and friend of the individual citizen, the consul has another set of functions which, while less tangible, are no less real. In the eyes of great bodies of foreigners, both officials and private individuals, the American consul represents the American people, for at not a few posts he is the only American resident and in most foreign cities he is the recognized head and leader of the American community. While international law denies him the peculiar representative status accorded the diplomat, he is nevertheless in a very real sense a representative of the American Government, and on his personality, conscientious performance of duty, ability to make friends, and appropriate and dignified manner of living depends in a large measure the prestige of the American people in foreign countries.

CAPE SPARTEL LIGHT, COAST OF MOROCCO.

Mr. SHREVE. We will now take up "international obligations, commissions, bureaus, etc.," on page 45, and the first item is the Cape Spartel Light, coast of Morocco, where the appropriation is for $250, the same as it has been for some time. I understand that that is a treaty obligation, is it?

Mr. CARR. The Cape Spartel Light is an international lighthouse which, under a treaty concluded on May 31, 1865, between the United States, Austria, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Russia, Germany, and Morocco, was erected off the coast of Morocco at the expense of Morocco, and is maintained at the cost of the other parties of the treaty, the cost being apportioned equally among them.

The light is the first to be picked up by vessels entering the Mediterranean, and is absolutely necessary to insure the safety of navigation along the dangerous coast of Morocco. It benefits not only American commerce, but safeguards the lives of thousands of American tourists who are yearly passengers on vessels entering the Mediterranean. American war vessels are also benefited by it.

This is an international obligation which may be dispensed with only at the expiration of one year's notice of intention to denounce the treaty.

Mr. SHREVE. As a matter of fact, do the other nations to this treaty pay their proportionate part?

Mr. CARR. Oh, yes; they pay their proportionate part, which is determined by the treaty.

Mr. SHREVE. Then will this appropriation be sufficient to meet our share? The reason I ask you that is that we had a little deficiency a few years ago.

Mr. CARR. Mr. Chairman, the assessment against us for the year 1924 has just been received, and the amount of money in our possession will not cover it. Therefore, we have been obliged to ask for a supplemental appropriation of $136, which would be required at the normal rate of exchange to purchase 2,000 pesetas, the amount of the quota of the United States.

Mr. GRIFFIN. What nations are embraced in this agreement?

Mr. CARR. Austria, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Germany, and Morocco. The purpose of this is to maintain a light at the entrance to the Mediterranean to insure the safety of navigation along the coast of Morocco.

Mr. OLIVER. What is the total cost of maintaining it?

Mr. CARR. The annual cost to the signatory governments is 24,000 pesetas which at the normal rate of exchange amounts to $4,632, of which the quota of the United States is $386. The actual payment may be much less than this, depending upon rate of exchange.

Mr. OLIVER. Do any other countries contribute a larger sum than we?

Mr. CARR. No; all contribute alike to this object. Usually the United States falls within the group in which France, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and Japan fall, and pays one of the largest contributions. Mr. OLIVER. I suppose the expense is allocated on the basis of the ability to pay, rather than on the amount of service received from the maintenance of the light.

Mr. CARR. The treaty usually specifies the basis of the allocation among the nations; that is to say, the treaties usually specify that there shall be classes 1, 2, 3, and 4 of nations, that class 1 will pay on the basis of so many units, class 2, a lesser number of units, and class 3, still a smaller number of units, and in that way they reach the amount of the contribution. The primary basis is generally on the population and wealth of the country and the ability to pay as you very properly said a moment ago.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Would not a better basis be the amount of shipping of the respective nations that would go toward the comparative usefulness of the light?

Mr. CARR. That would place the United States and Great Britain in the front rank of the contributors. But as I have said, in the case of the Cape Spartel Light, all nations pay a like sum.

RESCUING SHIPWRECKED AMERICAN SEAMEN.

Mr. SHREVE. What is the purpose of this item "Rescuing shipwrecked American seamen," for which an appropriation of $3,000 is asked?

Mr. CARR. The purpose of this appropriation is to encourage foreign shipmasters and seamen to rescue shipwrecked American seamen. The money is expended for watches, binoculars, glasses, and gold medals for presentation to officers and crews of foreign vessels effecting the rescue of American seamen who have been shipwrecked.

The experiences of the war demonstrated that the term "shipwreck" as employed in the statutes was not broad enough to cover vessels destroyed by submarine attack or as a result of naval operations. Accordingly, the terms of this provision were broadened by the act of June 4, 1920, to cover not only shipwreck but "other catastrophe at sea."

The awards are made in the name of the President of the United States to masters and crews of foreign vessels and usually consist of a watch to the master of the vessel and binoculars to the first officer and medals to the seamen when they pick up or rescue the crew of a shipwrecked American vessel. The extent of the reward depends upon the danger encountered in bringing about the rescue.

Mr. ACKERMAN. How many rewards were distributed last year? Mr. CARR. During the fiscal year 1923 there were awarded 6 watches. and chains, 15 binocular glasses, and 94 gold medals. The watches.

and chains cost about $196 each, the binoculars about $70 each, and the medals $30 each. These represented an expenditure of last year's appropriation and a considerable part of the appropriation for the year before.

The appropriation used to be $4,500. We have spent generally between a few hundred dollars, or less than that, up to $4,500, which was the highest we ever required in one year.

Mr. SHREVE. It is really a very meritorious reward, isn't it?

Mr. WRIGHT. It has an excellent effect. The watches are very well chosen, and not only does it stimulate the rescue of our people, but it is a most happy way of interpreting our appreciation.

Mr. CARR. A few years ago we had a particularly meritorious case of rescue, and we gave a handsomely inscribed watch to the master, and we gave, I think, a couple of high-grade binocular glasses, one each to the first and second officers, and a number of medals to the crew. We sent them to the British Government (it is customary to present them through the foreign office of the Government whose flag the rescuing ship bears) and they were transmitted to a little town in England, the home port of the vessel, where the master lived. We got a report afterwards of the presentation. The whole town turned out; the mayor was present, and some high officer of the British Government came down to make the presentation; the day was made a holiday occasion. Not only did the incident encourage all masters in that region to be on the lookout for wrecked American seamen and vessels in future, but it contributed very largely, I should say, toward creating good will toward the United States in that whole region. Hence, the importance of recognizing the humane acts of the seafaring men of other countries.

INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

Mr. SHREVE. The next is the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. The duties of this bureau are defined in the treaty of 1875, I presume, and I think we had better have enlightenment as to that treaty for the Members of the House, so I will ask you to insert that in the record.

Mr. CARR. The duties of this bureau as defined in the treaty of 1875 are as follows:

First. Comparison and verification of the new prototypes of the meter and kilogram.

Second. The custody of the international prototypes.

Third. The periodical comparison of the national standards with the international prototypes and with their test copies, as well as comparisons of the standard thermometers.

Fourth. The comparison of the prototypes with the fundamental standards of nonmetrical weights and measures used in different countries for scientific purposes.

Fifth. The sealing and comparison of geodesic measuring bars.

Sixth. The comparison of standards and scales of precision, the verification of which may be requested by governments or by scientific societies, or even by constructors or men of science.

To these, by an amendatory convention signed on October 6, 1921, the bureau is charged with the duty of making the determinations relative to physical constants, such, for instance, as electrical resistance.