tender a passage to the ship. It will be the duty of the Consular Officer to accept it, and he will be entitled to a salute of the number of guns herein prescribed.

120.. Vice-Consuls-General, Deputy Consuls-General, ViceConsuls, Deputy Consuls, Consular Agents, and Vice-Commercial Agents will receive a salute of three guns.

121..While Consular Officers are expected to use their official position to advance the interests of the Navy, it may be remarked that their salaries are not established on a scale to require social attentions to the officers which call for the expenditure of money, unless they see fit to give them; and that the fact that such attentions have been given, or supposed to be required, will not justify a Consul in asking increased compensation.

122..They are also reminded that the Navy is an independent branch of the service, not subject to the orders of this Department, and that its officers have fixed duties prescribed for them; they will therefore be careful to ask for the presence of a naval force at their ports only when public exigencies absolutely require it, and will then give the officers in command in full the reasons for the request, and leave with them the responsibility of action. If the request is addressed to the Department of State, the reasons should likewise be fully stated for its information.

ARTICLE IX.

Formalities to be Observed on Arrival at Post.

123.. After the arrival of a Consul-General, Consul, or Commercial Agent at his post, he will give information thereof to the Legation of the United States, if there be one accredited to the government of the country in which the Consular Office is situated. A Consul and Commercial Agent will give similar information to the Consulate-General, if there be one in the country.

124..It is the practice of the Department of State to send the Consular commission to the Diplomatic Representative, with instructions to apply in the proper quarter for an exequatur, by which the Consular Officer is officially recognized and authorized to discharge his duties. When the

Social attention to naval officers.

When naval force

may be asked.

Arrival at post.

Commission and exequatur.

cers.

exequatur is obtained, it is transmitted to the Consular Officer at his post, through the Consulate-General, if there be one in the country; otherwise, directly to his address. The Consular commission is also sent to him at the same time. Subordinate offi. It is usual, also, to apply in the same manner for the exequaturs of subordinate officers. It is the practice in respect to such officers in the colonies or dependencies of a country to instruct the Consul-General, or the principal Consular Officer, if there be no Consul-General, to apply to the proper colonial authority for permission for the subordinate to act temporarily in his official capacity, pending the result of the request for the exequatur.

If no Legation, commission, how

sent.

Certificates of subordinate officers.

Delivery of archIves and inventory.

125..If there be no Legation of the United States in the country, the commission of a principal Consular Officer will be sent directly to him, with instructions to transmit it without delay on arrival at his post to the proper department of the government, and to request an exequatur. In such cases it is usual to inclose the commission in a letter from the Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country, to be delivered at a suitable opportunity after the arrival of the Consul at his post. In either case he will, in respectful terms, acquaint the authorities of the port or district to which he is sent of his appointment; and if he can obtain their consent to his acting in his official capacity before the receipt of the exequatur, he is authorized so to act. On the granting of such permission it is the duty of the outgoing Officer, or the subordinate in charge, to deliver up the official seals, archives, and public property. As soon as the exequatur is received, it should be made public in the manner usual in the country. In the event that there should be unusual delay in granting the exequatur, the Consul should inform the Department of State.

126..The certificates of appointment of subordinate officers in countries in which the United States have no Legation are sent to the principal Officer, with instructions to request, from the proper authority, the recognition or exequatur accorded to such Officers.

127.. Upon the receipt of the exequatur, or permission to act, the Consular Officer will apply to the person having charge of the Consular seals and public property of the office

for their delivery to him; and having made an inventory jointly with his predecessor or the subordinate in charge, if either be present, of the books and other effects, he will transmit a copy of such inventory signed by himself and his predecessor, or the subordinate Officer, or in their absence by himself, to the Department of State. The form of the joint certificate is given in Form No. 5. 128.. Upon the appointment of a Consular Agent, an in- Inventory at Conventory of all property at the Agency belonging to the United States should also be made by the incoming and outgoing Officers, with a certificate showing the date of delivery, both of which should be sent to the principal Officer, to be by him communicated to the Department of State.

sular Agency.

129.. He will likewise transmit to the Fifth Auditor of the Certificate to Fifth Auditor. Treasury a certificate (Form No. 5), executed jointly by himself and his predecessor, or the subordinate, if present, showing the date of actual entry on his duties. He may then take charge of the seals, archives, and property of the office.

130.. Consular Officers who are prohibited from engaging Location of office. in business will be expected to establish their offices at the most convenient central location that the sum allowed for office rent will permit, and to keep them open daily during the usual business hours of the place. No subordinate or branch office will be permitted in the same place with the Consulate.

131..Consular Officers, especially in important commercial and manufacturing districts, are not permitted to have their offices in the counting-rooms or places of business of merchants, manufacturers, agents, solicitors, or brokers. The appropriate business of the Consular Officer must not fail to receive his personal attention, nor be left to be performed by such merchants, or other persons, or their clerks, so that the contents of invoices, which are in all cases to be regarded as confidential, become known to interested parties, to the serious injury of the persons to whom the invoices properly belong. Such practices are highly reprehensible, and are ground for serious complaint. The Consular Office, whether the Consular Officer is prohibited from trading or not, must be in a respectable location and devoted exclusively to the Consular business; and no one but a duly au

Requirements.

Public moneys.

Notice on entering on duties.

Use of arms and flag.

thorized Officer must be permitted to have access to the Consular papers or to use the Consular seals.

132.. If there are any public funds in the hands of his predecessor, the Consular Officer may take charge of them. The outgoing Officer, however, is responsible to the Government for them, and they cannot be demanded as a matter of right. It is expected in any case that sufficient funds, if in the hands of the outgoing Officer, will be left for the immediate needs of the office. For any moneys so transferred the outgoing Officer should be careful to take proper receipts, to be returned with his accounts with the Government. If the funds held by the predecessor are the proceeds of the effects of an American citizen who died intestate more than a year previous to the transfer of the office, which should have been remitted to the Treasury as provided by law, it is not usual to deliver them to the successor, but they should be remitted by the outgoing Officer, who is responsible therefor.

133 . Having entered on the duties of his office, the Consular Officer, if a Consul-General, should immediately give notice thereof to the Department of State and to the Diplomatic Representative; if a Consul or Commercial Agent, he will give like notice to the Department and to the ConsulGeneral to whom he may be subordinate, or, if there be no Consul-General, then to the Diplomatic Representative, if there be one. He will also inform the principal Consular Officers of the United States in the country, and will also send his official card to, or call personally upon, the Consular Officers of other countries in the place, as the custom may be. He will also, before the expiration of ninety days after entering on his duties, nominate to the Department of State, through his immediate superior, or directly, agreeably to the instructions of paragraphs 32 and 33, suitable persons for appointment to the Consular Agencies in his jurisdiction, and a suitable person to be Vice-Consul or Vice-Commercial Agent to act in case of his temporary absence or of his relief from duty from any cause.

134..The arms of the United States should be placed over the entrance of the Consulate or Commercial Agency, unless prohibited by the laws of the country. Wherever the custom prevails, the national flag should be hoisted on such

occasions as the Consular Officer may deem appropriate, or when it may be required for his protection, or as the emblem of his authority. It is not usually necessary that it should be unfurled daily. The occasions for its display are within the judgment of the Consular Officer; but its use will be suggested on all national holidays of his own country, and whenever it would indicate a becoming respect to the customs, festivals, or public ceremonies of the country to which he is accredited.

made.

135.. In preparing the inventory of the public property Inventory, how above referred to, Consular Officers are instructed to follow, as closely as possible, the order of former inventories, so that a comparison can readily be made at the Department. A copy of each inventory should be carefully preserved among the Consular records.

ARTICLE X.

Correspondence of Consular Officers with the Depart

ment of State.

136..All communications addressed to the Department, Despatches. as well as inclosures, must be written on cap paper, in a fair, legible hand, on every page leaving an inch margin on each side of the page. Despatch paper of the prescribed form will be supplied by the Department upon requisition therefor.

137.. All despatches must be numbered consecutively, beginning with the acceptance of the office, and continuing, consecutively, during the term of the incumbent. A ViceConsular Officer, acting in the absence of his principal, or when from a vacancy or other cause he is in charge of the office, should continue the series of numbers of the principal or of the late Consul, as the case may be. This series will, in the case of a vacancy, be continued until the entry of a successor upon his duties. A new series should not be begun with the new year; and the series of numbers of despatches to the Department of State must be kept separate from the series of communications to other Departments.

Numbering.

re

138.. Each despatch is, as far as possible, to be confined Despatch to one subject, and is to be divided into paragraphs when stricted to one subtreating of the several parts of a subject.