Forms and certificates to ac company con the President. And no compensation will be allowed for the time of any such absence in any case, except in cases of sickness and where the absence is permitted or sanctioned by the President.1 In such cases, a certificate of the fact must accompany the account, which certificate must be signed by the attending physician, as well as the consular officer. 459. Each account and draft must, therefore, be accompanied with a certificate stating the fact in sular accounts. regard to absence as it exists. A form, (No. 33,) according to which the accounts of consuls and commercial agents for salaries should be stated, and also forms (No. 34, No. 35, and No. 36,) of the several descriptions of official certificates required to accompany consular accounts, are annexed to these Instructions. Forms and in observed. 460. Consuls are especially instructed to observe structions to be carefully these forms and instructions in regard to their accounts, in order that all possible facilities may be afforded for the adjustment of the same, and the payment of their salaries under the act, without the dishonor of their drafts. of salaries. Application of 461. As many of the United States consular offifees to payment cers are stationed at places so remote from the United States that much time must elapse in making remittances to and from the Treasury Department, and much risk be incurred, as well as loss by exchange, consuls and commercial agents are instructed to retain (of the fees which they are required to charge for certain services, and account for at the expiration of every three months) such moneys as they may receive for their official services, as prescribed by the President, and apply the amount thus received during 1 1 Opinion of Attorney General, September 21, 1857. MS. the quarter, at the end of the same quarter, towards the payment of their salaries, if less than the full amount thereof; if equal to their salaries, respectively, then to the extinguishment of the same. Should there be a surplus, the excess is to be held subject to the draft or order of the Secretary of the Treasury. 462. When the amount received by any consular Drafts for salofficer on account of fees during the quarter, shall ary. be less than his salary for such quarter, he may draw on the Secretary of the Treasury for the difference, at fifteen days' sight. It must be stated on the face of the draft that it is for the residue of salary, designating the quarter in which the deficiency occurred for which it is drawn. The account of the receipts of the consular officer during the same quarter must precede the draft, so that it may be received and adjusted by the accounting officers, prior to the presentation of the draft. All consular officers are explicitly instructed that their drafts on account of their salaries cannot be honored unless drawn in the manner stated in these instructions, and accompanied with the official statements and certificates herein pointed out. 13 intercourse CHAPTER XXIII. OFFICIAL INTERCOURSE OF UNITED STATES CONSULAR OFFICERS WITH OFFICERS OF THE NAVY. Regulations re- 463. To promote harmony and concert of action specting official between the commanders of ships of war and conwith navy offi- sular officers of the United States residing in foreign ports, the following regulations have been established, by direction of the President of the United States, and are promulgated for the government of the officers concerned: cers. Visit of a con 1. Upon entering a foreign port where a consular officer of the United States of a lower rank than a consul general resides, the commander of a United States ship of war will send a boat on shore with an officer on board, who shall visit the consul, and tender to him a passage to the ship; 2. Where a consul general resides, it is the duty of the commander of an American ship of war (commanders of squadrons excepted) to visit the consul general, and offer him a passage to the ship; 3. The commander of a squadron will send a boat on shore, as prescribed in the first regulation, tendering to the consular officer a passage on board to the flag ship of war. 464. According to the first regulation, a consular sular officer to officer of the United States residing at a foreign port which is visited by a ship of war of the United States, is to receive the first visit from such ship, in the per a United States vessel. son of an officer belonging to it, deputed and sent for that purpose by the commander; and this officer is then to tender to the consul a passage to the vessel. In such cases the consular officer will accordingly avail himself of the proposed accommodation whenever occasion may require, both for the purpose of making the first visit to the commanding officer of the ship in question (this being a mark of courtesy due to the commission and rank he holds in the navy of the United States) and to offer any services which his official situation may enable him to render for the convenience of the ship or those belonging to it; and the consular officer will accordingly receive and execute any such commission as may be intrusted to him for these ends by the commanding officer, as far as it may be compatible with his sense of public duty. sul general, and 465. According to the second and third, it shall Visit of a navy be the duty of the commander of any United States officer to a convessel (commanders of squadrons excepted) to visit the duty of the the consul general, and offer him a passage to the latter. ship of war, or that of the commander of a squadron to send a boat on shore, as prescribed in the first regulation, tendering to the consular officer a passage on board to the flag ship of war. The consul general and consul of the United States, where there are such officers, will, accordingly, reciprocate these attentions on the part of the commanders of the ships of war, or will pay the first honors to the commanding officers of squadrons, as the case may be; and they will of course employ their good offices, as far as it may be useful or proper on their part, to promote the interests and convenience of the service in which such vessels are engaged. Salutes. Presence of vessels to be 466. Consuls general are entitled to a salute of nine guns, consuls to a salute of seven guns, vice consuls, consular agents, commercial agents, and vice commercial agents, to a salute of five guns; which salutes are only to be fired once during the stay of a man-ofwar; or in case of any special emergency, of which the commanding naval officer must be the judge, the salute may be repeated. On the first gun being fired, the boat which conveys the consular officer who is receiving the salute must stop, the oarsmen either lying on their oars or tossing them up. The consular officer will face the vessel firing the salute; and at the end of the salute he will raise his cap in a distinct and unmistakable manner; the boat will then proceed. 467. Consular officers will refrain from requesting, United States except through the medium of the Department of requested only State, the presence of United States vessels at the in great emer- ports in their respective consular districts, unless for gencies. the protection of the lives and property of American citizens which might be endangered by delay; in such a case the consular officer will present to the commander of the vessel a statement of the facts, who will act upon his own responsibility, subject to the general or special orders he may have received from the Navy Department.] |