FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF THE UNITED STATES HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SIXTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION 95885 ON H. R. 9937 and H. R. 10213 RELATIVE TO THE FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF JANUARY 18, 20, AND 21, 1922 STATEMENTS OF HON. WILBUR J. CARR, Director of the Consular Service, MR. TRACY LAY, Department of State MR. FRED K. NIELSEN, Solicitor, Department of State WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1922 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. J. CHARLES LINTHICUM, Maryland. W. BOURKE COCKRAN, New York. II EDMUND F. ERK, Clerk. FOREIGN INTERCOURSE OF OF THE UNITED STATES. COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, [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 : 66 66 66 Ambassador, not exceeding fourteen in number, $17,500. 'Minister, class one, not exceeding three in number, $12,000. "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: "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, including consular assistants and clerks, who have died or who may die abroad, or in transit, while in the discharge of their official duties, to their former homes in this country for interment, and for the ordinary and necessary expenses of such interment at their posts or at home; and appropriations for such purposes are hereby authorized. SEC. 13. That the Secretary of State is authorized, out of any appropriations made by Congress for that purpose, to make annual or periodical contributions toward the support of foreign hospitals, seamen's missions, and other institutions of like nature, upon the assurance and with the understanding that suffering American seamen and citizens of the United States shall be admitted to the full privileges of such institutions; and appropriations for such purposes are hereby authorized. SEC. 14. That all international commissions, congresses, conferences, conventions, and other like institutions of an international character to which the United States is or may become a party, or in the work of which the United States may participate as an adhering member, are hereby placed under the direction of the Secretary of State, and appropriations, within the limits fixed by Congress, are hereby authorized for the annual dues, quotas, and other necessary expenses incidental to such participation. The following are included among such authorized and established international objects: Pan American Union, $100,000; International Commission on Annual Tables of Constants, and so forth, $500; Bureau of Interparliamentary Union for Promotion of International Arbitration, $2,000; International Railway Congress, $400; International Sanitary Bureau, $11,500; United States Section of the InterAmerican High Commission, $25,000; International Research Council, $2,658; International Hydrographic Bureau, $3,860; International Prison Commission, $2,550: Provided, however, That nothing in this section shall be construed to modify or repeal the provision in the act of Congress approved March 4, 1913 (Thirty-seventh United States Statutes at Large, 912), requiring that the Executive shall not extend or accept any invitation to participate in any international congress, conference, or like event without first having specific authority of law to do so. SEC. 15. That section 4122 of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended so as to read as follows: 66 The President is authorized to pay out of such appropriations as may be made therefor by Congress, the making of which is hereby authorized, the actual expense of the rent and maintenance of suitable buildings in foreign countries for the incarceration of American convicts and those declared insane by the United States Court for China or by consular courts, together with the salaries and wages of keepers of the same and the care of prisoners and insane persons." SEC. 16. That for the purpose of relief and protection the laws relating to seamen on foreign voyages shall apply to seamen on vessels going to and from the United States or its possessions and the Panama Canal Zone, the Territory of Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, the customs officers there being for this purpose substituted for consular officers in foreign ports. SEC. 17. That secetion 1695 of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended so as to read as follows: "The President is authorized to define the extent of country to be embraced within any consulate, and to provide for the appointment of vice consuls and consular agents therein, in such manner and under such regulations as he shall deem proper.' SEC. 18. That whenever any diplomatic or consular officers dies in a foreign country in the discharge of his duties, leaving a widow or minor child or children actually dependent upon his salary for their support, the Secretary of State may in his discretion recommend the payment to such widow or minor child or children of an allowance not exceeding one year's salary at the rate at which such officer was receiving compensation at the time of his decease, and appropriations for this purpose are hereby authorized. SEC. 19. That there shall be in the Department of State an Undersecretary of State, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, who shall be entitled to a salary of $10,000 a year; a private secretary to the Undersecretary of State at a salary of $2,500 a year; a lithographer at a salary of $1,400 a year; chauffeur to the Secretary of State at a salary of $1,080 a year; and charwomen in such number as the Congress may authorize, each of whom shall receive a salary of $240 a year. |