COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. SIXTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. JOHN JACOB ROGERS, Massachusetts. HENRY ALLEN COOPER, Wisconsin. BENJAMIN L. FAIRCHILD, New York. II J. CHARLES LINTHICUM, Maryland. W. BOURKE COCKRAN, New York. EDMUND F. ERK, Clerk. FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF THE UNITED STATES. COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, [H. R. 9937, Sixty-seventh Congress, second session.] A BILL Relative to the foreign intercourse of the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 1675 of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended so as to read as follows: "SEC. 1675. That ambassadors and envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary shall hereafter be graded and classified as follows, with the salaries of each class herein affixed thereto : "Ambassador, not exceeding fourteen in number, $17,500. "Minister, class one, not exceeding three in number, $12,000. Minister, class two, not exceeding thirty in number, $10,000. "That hereafter all appointments of ministers shall be by commission to a class and not by commission to any particular post, and such officers shall be assigned to posts and transferred from one post to another by order of the President as the interests of the service may require: Provided, That the salaries of $12,000 and $10,000 which have been or may be appropriated for ministers shall be available for ministers now receiving such salaries who may be recommissioned as ministers of class one and class two, respectively, or for persons promoted to the rank of minister from the lower grades of the Diplomatic and Consular Service, or from minister, class two, to minister, class one. "No salary appropriated for any ambassador or minister shall be paid to any official receiving any other salary from the United States Government. "The President shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a minister resident and consul general to Liberia whose salary shall be at the rate of $5,000 per year, and an agent and consul general at Tangier and at Cairo, respectively, whose salary shall be at the rate of $7,500 per annum each." SEC. 2. That section 1676 of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended so as to read as follows: 66 'SEC. 1676. That a commissioner appointed to act in any country shall be entitled to receive 75 per centum of the amount of salary received by the last ambassador or minister accredited to that country, or in the absence of previous diplomatic representation, to 75 per centum of the salary of a minister of class two; and chargés d'affaires so appointed shall be entitled to receive the same salary as a commissioner: Provided, That any diplomatic or consular officer may be designated to act as commissioner without loss of class or salary, and when so designated shall, if his salary is less than the salary of a commissioner as herein provided, be entitled to receive, in addition to his diplomatic or consular salary, compensation equal to the difference between such salary and that of a commissioner." SEC. 3. That the President shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint as secretary and as assistant secretary of embassy or legation in each of the following countries persons proficient in the use of the language thereof, who shall bear titles and receive compensation as follows: Japanese secretary of embassy to Japan, $5,500; Chinese secretary of embassy to China, $5,500; Turkish secretary of legation to Turkey, $5,500; Japanese assistant secretary of legation to Japan, $4,000; Chinese assistant secretary of embassy to China, $4,000; Turkish assistant secretary of embassy to Turkey, $4,000; and the said offices are hereby established. 1 SEC. 4. That no money shall be expended from appropriations for clerks at embassies and legations for the employment of persons hereafter appointed who are not citizens of the United States, and so far as practicable all appointments of clerks at embassies, legations, and consulates shall be under civil service rules and regulations. SEC. 5. That sections 1677, 1678, 1679, 1682, 1683, 1686, 1693, and 1696 of the Revised Statutes are hereby repealed. SEC. 6. That the President shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint interpreters as follows: Interpreter to legation and consulate general to Persia, not exceeding one in number, $2,500 per annum; interpreter to legation and 'consulate general to Bangkok, Siam, not exceeding one in number, $2,500 per annum; and also to allow at his discretion a sum not exceeding the rate of $500 in any one year to any one embassy, legation, or any other diplomatic mission or consulate where no interpreter is regularly employed, for expenses of interpretation. And the offices herein mentioned are hereby established. SEC. 7. That the President shall be, and he is hereby, authorized, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribed, to appoint student interpreters, who shall be assigned to the embassies and legations in the oriental countries, and whose duties it shall be to study the languages of such countries with a view to supplying interpreters to embassies, legations, and other diplomatic missions and consulates: To China, not exceeding ten in number, $1,500 per annum each; to Japan, not exceeding six in number, $1,500 per anum each; to Turkey, not exceeding four in number, $1,500 per annum each; and such offices are hereby established: Provided, That the method of selecting such student interpreters shall be nonpartisan: Provided further, That upon receiving such appointment each student interpreter shall sign an agreement to continue in the service as an interpreter so long as his services may be required within a period of five years. SEC. 8. That annual allowances for the rent of quarters and for the payment of the cost of tuition of student interpreters shall be made from such appropriations as may be provided therefore by Congress, which are hereby authorized. SEC. 9. Section 1748 of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended so as to read as follows: "SEC. 1748. The President is authorized to provide, at the public expense, all such stationery, blanks, records, and other books, seals, presses, flags, flagpoles, signs, and also for rent, repairs of buildings, postage, telegrams and cablegrams, furniture, furnishings, fixtures and equipment, repairs and materials for repairs, supplies, typewriters, including exchange of same, fuel and illuminants, freight, express, drayage, and customs charges, local transportation, newspapers and periodicals (foreign and domestic), and payment in advance therefor, printing and binding, printing in the Department of State, statistics taxes and rates, traveling and other expenses incidental thereto, loss on bills of exchange to and from embassies, legations, and other diplomatic missions and consulates, including such loss on bills of exchange to officers of the United States Court for China, compensation of Chinese writers, kavasses, guards, dragomans, porters, interpreters, dispatch agents, translators, messengers, and such other miscellaneous expenses as the President may think necessary for the several embassies, legations, and other diplomatic missions and consulates in the transaction of their business, and appropriations for such purposes are hereby authorized." SEC. 10. That the Secretary of State is authorized, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, to pay the itemized and verified statements of the actual and necessary expenses of transportation and subsistence of diplomatic and consular officers and clerks in ambassies, legations, other diplomatic missions and consulates, and their families and effects in going to and returning from their posts, or when traveling under orders of the Secretary of State, but not including any expense incurred in connection with leaves of absence; and appropriations for such purposes are hereby authorized. SEC. 11. That the President is authorized, at the public expense, to make appropriate awards in the acknowledgment of the services of masters and crews of foreign vessels in rescuing American seamen or citizens from shipwreck or other catastrophe at sea; and appropriations for such purposes are hereby authorized. SEC. 12. That the President shall defray, at the public expense, the expenses of transporting the remains of diplomatic and consular officers of the United States, |