THE DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES.

VIEWS OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE CONCERNING THE FOREIGN SERVICE.

In every part of the earth the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States are watching every turn of events in their relation to the general policies of his Government. They report every source of international irritation; they note the signals of economic and political unrest, of internataional rivalries, prejudices, subversive tendencies, and discriminatory policies. They aid the Government not merely in settling disputes but in removing or limiting the causes of possible controversy. * * *

Every American should feel ashamed that any country in the world should have a better diplomatic organization than the United States. This is not a matter simply of national pride; it is a mater of naional securiy.

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The truth is that our foreign service is undermanned and underpaid. You can not have an efficient foreign service without having trained men and can not keep men without an adequate system for their selection and maintenance; and you can not keep men who have been properly selected and trained and are invaluable to their country unless you offer reasonable opportunities for promotion.

CHARLES EVANS HUGHES.

FOREWORD.

In this volume is contained a comprehensive analysis of the organization and administration of the Diplomatic and Consular Service of the United States under the limitations imposed upon the Department of State by existing law. The conclusion is reached that there is need for complete reorganization, unification, and coordination of these services if this Government is to maintain its proper position and dignity abroad among the great nations of the earth. At the end of the World War the United States suddenly accumulated many new and great international interests; its Diplomatic and Consular Service assumed a new importance. American business interests found new avenues of commerce and trade opened up to them in all parts of the world. To the Department of State logically were their inquiries for assistance directed, with the result that new and involved duties became a part of the hitherto already arduous work of the officers of the Diplomatic and Consular Service.

Compensation and prospects insufficient to secure and hold men of ability other than those of independent means have hampered the development of the foreign service. Our ambassadors, ministers, secretaries, and consuls have been and are to-day, handicapped in their work by the meager salaries allowed them in comparison with those paid the representatives of other countries. Trained and adequate staffs of recognized ability are indispensable to the Government, and the officers of the foreign service should by all means be assured that conspicuous ability and fidelity will be appropriately recognized and rewarded by their Government. The future of the foreign service is in the hands of Congress.

I. ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT.

Since the World War the United States Government has assumed a new position among the family of nations of the world. Its intercourse with foreign countries is to-day unavoidably more active and constant than ever before. The suddenly accumulated new interests and responsibilities imposed naturally greater pressure upon the Department of State, particularly as this department is charged directly with the maintenance of peace and the extension of friendship with foreign countries.

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Many new international interests were at once established, new possibilities for participation in foreign affairs were visioned by American business men, new openings for trade and commerce made manifest. Business organizations turned to the Department of State with varied demands for information with regard to new avenues for foreign trade development, as well as for aid in the extension of that international commerce which became immediately a new field for American business. This demand called logically for greater activity, greater initiative, greater effort, on the part of the State Department.

American business men infrequently come into direct contact with the officials or the representatives of the Department of State and few possibly have realized how the forces of this department are ever at work to promote the financial, industrial, economic, and commercial interests of the country as well as its political position among the nations of the world. A certain apathy, therefore, seemingly has existed regarding the form of organization of the department; of its personnel; of the remuneration given men charged with most important missions. The officers of the Department of State are, indeed, the outposts of the Nation-its first line of offense and defense but they are inspired and controlled in all their acts only by the methods of peace. A brief outline of the history of the department, its functions, and the important duties of its officers, from the secretary down, will enable a better understanding of that department of the Government which, through its Diplomatic and Consular Services, is charged directly by law with the conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States.

During the early history of our Government the Secretary of State was entitled, much after the manner of most European governments, the "Secretary of Foreign Affairs." This was in the year 1781, the birth of what was called the Department of Foreign Affairs. It occupied as its offices two rooms, one for the secretary and one for his deputy and clerks. The office rent for the first year was itemized as $200.

In the present year of 1923, the Department of State is housed in the im. posing building companioning the White House, where 604 members of the home office under the Assistant secretaries labor as the hands and eyes and counsellors of the Secretary of State, upon whose shoulders the burden of its great responsibility ultimately rests. And in the field of foreign service, acting as representatives to gather information and to carry out policies in all foreign countries, the personnel is listed as 3,447. Though for many years now it has borne the familiar title of the Department of State, it is peculiarly the Department of Foregin Affairs, as it was entitled by those who first conceived it.

Immediately after the Spanish War, when the labors of the State Department became more intensive and more extensive, the home work was distributed according to certain so-called politico-geographical divisions. For instanc, there was primarily established as then of greatest moment as an example and standard for subsequent divisions, the far eastern division. Here were grouped together experts who, through experience in the Diplomatic Service or the Consular Service were familiar with the living conditions, the political, and trade conditions of Japan and China, the great people that made up the Far East. All correspondence that dealt in any way with these countries was directed to this group of Far East experts. The value of such an organization led immediately to the establishment of other divisions along these politico-geographical lines, and to-day the organization of the department includes six such divisions as follows: Division of Far Eeastern Affairs, Division of Latin-American Affairs, Division of Western European Affairs, Division of Near Eastern Affairs, Division of Mexican Affairs, and Division of Eastern European Affairs. Such organizations with experts in every corner of the world have made the home service branch of the State Department immeasurably more effective in its dealings with world problems, as these divisions are charged with the general supervision of our relations, diplomatic and consular, political and economic, with the countries falling within their respective fields.

The commissioned officers of the Department of State are of course the Secretary of State, the Undersecretary, three Assistant Secretaries, and the Solicitor; and, too there are trained men at the heads of various important bureaus and divisions that have to do with the general conduct of the department's multifarious duties.

The Secretary of State is charged, under the direction of the President, with the duties appertaining to correspondence with the public ministers and

the consuls of the United States, and with the representatives of foreign powers accredited to the United States. He is regarded as the first in rank among the members of the Cabinet. He is also the custodian of the treaties made with foreign States, and of the laws of the United States. He grants and issues passports, and exequaturs to foreign consuls in the United States are issued through his office. He publishes the laws and resolutions of Congress, amendments to the Constitution, and proclamations declaring the admission of new States into the Union.

The Undersecretary of State is the principal assistant of the Secretary of State in the discharge of his various functions, aiding in the formulation and execution of the foreign policies of the Government, in the reception of representatives of foreign governments, etc. In matters which do not require the personal attention of the Secretary of State, he acts for the Secretary of State, and in the absence of the Secretary of State he becomes the Acting Secretary of State. The Undersecretary of State is charged with the general direction of the work of the Department of State and of the foreign service. The Assistant Secretary of State has charge of all matters pertaining to foreign trade, and supervises the office of the economic adviser. He has supervision over the work of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, the Division of Near Eastern Affairs, and the Division of Eastern European Affairs. He is the chairman of the board of examiners for the Consular Service, and in the absence of the Secretary of State and the Undersecretary of State, Ire becomes Acting Secretary of State.

The Second Assistant Secretary of State has direct supervision over the Division of Passport control and the visé office. He makes decisions in citizenship and other cases involving complex questions of law and policy. He is consulted by the officers of the department upon matters of diplomatic procedure and general questions of international law and policy, particularly when involving the traditional practice of the Department of State.

The Third Assistant Secretary of State is charged with the administration of the Diplomatic Service, the administration of the department, administrative matters concerning international conferences and commissions, and with matters pertaining to ceremonial and protocol. He has supervision over the work of the Diplomatic Bureau, the office of the chief clerk, the Bureau of Appointments, the Bureau of Accounts, and the Bureau of Indexes and Archives. He is charged with the presentation to the President of ambassadors and ministers of foreign countries newly accredited to the United States; he is chairman of the board of examiners for the Diplomatic Service.

There is the Solicitor of the State Department, whose rank is high and whose responsibilities are great. The office of the Solicitor treats with matters dealing with legal relations of our own Government with foreign States, involving international law in all its complications and ramifications. There, too, are treaties composed and international conventions and agreements, from which the work of this particular office grades down to the questions of claims of individual American citizens against foreign governments or the execution of wills and the administration of private property in foreign lands. Expatriation and extradition cases are here also executed. In this division alone, more than 20 trained Assistant Solicitors and law clerks are constantly employed on work which requires the most painstaking attention and

care.

Then, too, there is an economic adviser, whose function it is to advise with the Secretary of State on the broad questions of international trade and related subjects, embracing loans to foreign governments, tariffs, commercial treaties, and with such questions as those dealing with the study of oil resources in all parts of the world, etc.

The Diplomatic Bureau maintains the records of the personnel of the United States Diplomatic Service and of the embassies and legations accredited to the United States. It also falls to this bureau to arrange for the free entry of the official and personal effects of these representatives of other governments and of those of diplomatic officers of the United States as they pass to and fro in the course of their duties in all parts of the world.

The Consular Bureau is one of the important units of the department. It has charge of all the records of the personnel of the Consular Service and has supervision of the administration of the whole Consular Service, with its 411 offices and stations. It keeps constantly in touch with the personnel, numbering nearly 3,000. The duties of the director also involve the censoring, grading, and approval of commercial and economic reports; distribution of commercial

and economic reports to the Department of Commerce and other Government agencies. He, too, is the budget officer of the department and is charged with the preparation of all estimates of appropriations for the department.

Detail of a surprising nature is involved in the varied activities through which the foreign affairs of our country are administered, particularly, at home. Take the office which issues passports. During the tourist season as many as a thousand a day are issued, and during the year 1922 nearly 150,000 passports were issued. Associated with this office is the visé office, which deals with the important question of granting visés on foreign passports, which means that upon this office rests the responsibility of determining whether foreigners desiring to enter the United States are, or are not, objectionable from the viewpoint of safety to our institutions and Government.

The Division of Political Information, the Division of Current Information, the Bureau of Appointments, and the Bureau of Accounts are all functioning with definite objects in view. The bulk of the important information that flows into the department from its agents scattered throughout the world, flows out again through various channels. The consular trade reports to the Secretary of State, many of them filled with information of real importance to business houses and leaders of industry in this country, describe opportunities for the extension of American trade and commerce in foreign countries. These reports are sent to the Department of Commerce for publication, and approximately 2,000 copies each month are printed and utilized by the important business concerns of the country. To the Treasury Department goes all information supplied to the State Department by its representatives abroad concerning financial matters, and, too, data relating to oubreaks of conagious diseases in foreign lands which may ulimately necessitate the United States Public Health Service taking steps to prevent the introduction of these diseases into the United States.

There is also constant interchange of information between the State Department and the Department of Justice concerning matters of extradition; with the Department of Agriculture relating to foreign crops, soils, climate, plant and animal diseases; with the Department of Labor concerning immigration, as consular officers are obliged to visé the passports of every immigrant bound for the United States; with the War and Navy Departments relating to confidential matters having to do with political conditions abroad. At the request of the Secretary of State, naval vessels always are ready to drop anchor in a foreign port for such purposes as may be indicated.

II. THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE.

So functions the home office, with a personnel of 600. Corresponding to the home service is the foreign service of 3,447, who in some capacity or another are representative of America in foreign lands-the field representatives, so to speak, through whom the Department of State acquires the knowledge upon which to found its decisions and its policies and through whom, too, its mandates are executed abroad. As is generally known, this foreign service embraces those attached to the Diplomatic Service and those engaged in the Consular Service. The diplomatic officers are accredited directly to the foreign national gov ernments, the consular officers to municipalities or districts. One speaks, namely, of the ambassador to Great Britain, while it is the consul general at London, a city, which distinguishes that representative, and this terminology is universal when reference is made to diplomatic officers or to consular officers. Although the labors of the two branches of the foreign service are distinct, it will be seen from a consideration of the activities of each that there are many questions in which both divisions necessarily are interested, and that in all there is need for closest cooperation. Yet the consuls deal directly with the municipal authorities of the locality to which they are assigned, while the diplomatic officers deal only with the officers of the general government.

The personnel of the Diplomatic Service numbers in all 629, including ambassadors, ministers, secretaries, and clerks. These representatives of the Government of the United States are distributed in 51 countries in which we maintain diplomatic missions. It is the task of these men in diplomacy to keep in closest touch with every phase of the national life of the country where they reside and to keep the State Department informed with regard to all national questions of finance, commerce, arts, sciences, agriculture, mining, tariff, taxation, population, laws, and judicial statistics of that country. Particularly are they to keep well informed and observe and understand and interpret the intri

cacies of the national policies as these may have bearing upon the policies of our own Government. And, too, they are to convey to the foreign government a clear exposition of the mind and attitude of America upon all subjects in which our Government is interested. Out of this comes also the duty of standing up for the rights of the citizens of the United States as a whole and for any individual American citizen.

In the year just passed of 1923, 15 of the 51 diplomatic missions of this Government rendered the following oustanding types and extent of service to American commercial interests: In 126 distinct cases, involving millions of dollars, they have been able to protect these interests by preventing discrimination against them; in 31 cases they have removed restrictions on American commerce; in 70 cases they have given aid in settlement of claims and debts of American citizens against foreign governments; in 49 cases they have rendered assistance to representatives of American concerns in obtaining for them equal treatment with nationals of other governments in submitting proposals and being awarded contracts; and in 88 cases they have given general assistance and advice to American business firms in connection with financial and commercial matters. Also, these same missions rendered innumerable other services of importance.

An example of direct results to our shipping interests through diplomatic action will be of interest to those who follow the development of America's foreign trade through the instrumentality of the Diplomatic Service. During the past few years so-called emigrant licenses "-i. e., permission to transport emigrants have been obtained by American steamship companies from a number of European countries. The Department of State, through its diplomatic representatives in Europe, has been of real assistance to American shipping companies in obtaining these licenses. Prior to the war the emigrant business from Europe was handled largely by foreign lines, and the new American companies encountered formidable opposition in their attempt to compete for a fair part of this trade.

Another example of successful diplomacy is the application of the open door principle. American diplomats and consuls in far-away regions are zealously guarding the principle of equal opportunity for American trade, and when this principle is challenged these officers immediately advise the State Department, and the diplomatic officer accredited to the government concerned registers America's official protest and takes the necessary steps to assure the American company its full rights.

In another instance a certain foreign nation was about to execute a forced loan which would have sequestered about seventeen millions of dollars. The efforts of the American legation prevented this sequestration. Again in another instance of a South American country, the legation persuaded the officials of that country that mail matter should be carried by American vessels over a many-stop voyage, and thus established a contact with that country which is far-reaching and fundamental. In another country, import duties on the packing of American automobiles were reduced from 30 to 10 per cent. And further still, bank deposits that had been already sequestered by a foreign government were released and returned to their American owners.

III. THE CONSULAR SERVICE.

These isolated and typical cases are mentioned merely to show the practical work which our embassies and legations abroad are doing in the direct interest of America and American institutions. And they are but small, indeed, compared to the greater questions of protecting the rights of America to participate in the opening up of new fields of industry, in the inclusion of her business firms on an equitable basis with nationals of other countries, in the influence of the tariff laws of foreign countries, and in general by keeping the American Government at peace with all the world.

Turning now to that other branch of the foreign service of the State Department, the one named and known as the Consular Service, we find in it a personnel of 2,818, of whom 55 are consuls general, 317 are consuls, 135 are vice consuls of career, 87 are consular agents, 14 are interpreters, 2 are student interpreters, 11 are consular assistants, 2,197 are clerks and other employees. While the work of the diplomatic officers deals, as explained, with the national foreign governments, the work of the consular officers, is, as previously detailed, only with municipalities. But, in addition to this distinction, there is another; the work of the diplomatic officers is in a measure political, that of the consul