356. It will thus be seen that no consul is entitled to any other, or to an increased compensation for any services that he may be required to render, except in the single instance when he "shall be authorized, in the absence of the regular diplomatic officer in the country to which he shall be appointed, to perform diplomatic functions." pensation. 357. In countries where the United States have Consuls not established no mission, and consequently are not repentitled to diplomatic comresented by ministers, consuls can prefer no claim for extra compensation for the performance of any duties whatever, though they may partake of a diplomatic character. All consuls in such countries are simply commercial and not diplomatic officers; in that character only are they recognized by their own government or that of the country from which they respectively receive their exequaturs.1 and vice com 358. It is provided by the fourteenth section of Compensation the act above mentioned, that no compensation shall of vice consuls be allowed for the services of any vice consul or mercial agents. vice commercial agent beyond nor except out of the allowance made by the said act for the principal consular officer in whose place such appointment shall be made. vice commer 359. The fifteenth section of the same act provides, Compensation that every vice consul and vice commercial agent shall of vice consuls, be entitled, as compensation for his services as such, cial agents, to the whole or so much of the compensation of the and consular principal consular officer in whose place he shall be agents. appointed as shall be determined by the President, 1 See Communications to the Committee of the Senate on Foreign Relations and to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, January 22, April 12, and May 13, 1862; MSS. See also Senate Report, No. 59, 37th Congress, 2d sess.; also, Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 2d sess., pp. 3095-3097. No outfit allowed. and the residue, if any, shall be paid to such principal consular officer; and every consular agent shall be entitled, as compensation for his services, to such fees as he may collect in pursuance of the provisions of the act, or so much thereof as shall be determined by the President; and the principal officer of the consulate or commercial agency, within the limits of which such consular agent shall be appointed, shall be entitled to the residue, if any, in addition to any other compensation allowed him by the act for his services therein. 360. It is further provided by the twentieth section of the said act that no allowance, other than such as is provided by the act, shall be made in any case for the outfit or return home of any such officer Consular offi- or person; and no consular officer shall, nor shall any cers forbidden person under any consular officer, make any charge, commission for or receive, directly or indirectly, any compensation, receiving or by way of commission or otherwise, for receiving or disbursing ex- disbursing the wages or extra wages to which any to charge a tra wages, or the relief and men. to be interested seaman or mariner shall be entitled who shall be disin profits from charged in any foreign country, or for any money passages of sea- advanced to any such seaman or mariner who shall seek relief from any consulate or commercial agency; nor shall any consular officer, or any person under any consular officer, be interested, directly or indirectly, in any profit derived from clothing, boarding, or otherwise supplying or sending home any such seaman or mariner. Such prohibition as to profit is not to be construed to relieve or prevent any such officer who shall be the owner or otherwise interested in any ship or vessel of the United States from transporting in such ship or vessel any such seaman or mariner, or from receiving or being interested in Exception. such reasonable allowance as may be made for such transportation, under and by virtue of the fourth section of the act entitled "An act supplementary to the act concerning consuls and vice consuls, and for the further protection of American seamen," approved February twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and three.1 from his post, 361. It is provided by the nineteenth section, that Absence of a no consul general, consul, commercial agent, consular consular officer agent, or consular pupil shall be absent from his post and when com or the performance of his duties for a longer period pensation may than ten days at any one time, without the permis- absence. sion previously obtained of the President; and that no compensation shall be allowed for the time of any such absence in any case, except cases of sickness. 362. It is held by the Treasury Department, that if "such absence" is, through the Department of State, sanctioned by the President, compensation is to be allowed. be allowed for consular offi cers named in C unless citi 363. It is enacted by the twenty-first section, that No compensano compensation provided in the said act for any such tion allowed to officer as is mentioned in schedules B and C of the third section of the act, or any appropriation therefor, schedules B and shall be applicable to the payment of the compensa- zens of U. S. tion of any person appointed to or holding any such office after the act shall take effect who shall not be a citizen of the United States; nor shall any other compensation be allowed in any such case. 364. It has been held by the Treasury Department that this prohibition does not affect vice consuls, who may temporarily discharge the duties of principal consular officers in the event of the absence of such officers from their posts, their resignation or death.2 1 See Statutes at Large, vol. ii. pp. 203-205. 2 See decision in regard to the compensation of the vice consuls at Geneva, Genoa, Calcutta, Liverpool, Lyons, Quebec, and other places. acting consul. Compensation 365. A substitute, or vice consul, left in charge of of a vice or the consulate during the temporary absence of the consul, is to be compensated out of the statute emoluments of the office, subject to the regulations of the Department of State.1 Notice of termination of office. 366. An acting consul, in charge of a consulate during actual vacancy of the consulate, is entitled to receive the statute compensation of the office, subject, of course, to the provisions of the fifteenth section of the Diplomatic and Consular Act.2 367. In the case of appointments and removals by the President, when the removal is not by direct discharge or an express vacating of the office by way of independent fact, but merely by the operation of a new commission or appointment, then the virtue of the old commission ceases only when notice of the new commission is given to the outgoing officer, either by the President, or by the new officer exhibiting his commission to the old one, or by other sufficient notice, and the old officer continues to be entitled to compensation down to the time of his ceasing to perform the duties of his office.3 1 Opinions of the Attorneys General, vol. vii. 714. CHAPTER XX. CONSULAR FEES. 368. It is provided by section thirty-three of the Prior acts in Diplomatic and Consular Act,' that all acts and parts regard of fees of acts be annulled and repealed whereby any such fees are fixed and allowed as are contemplated by section seventeen of the said act. repealed. 369. The provisions in respect to consular fees Law relating to herafter to be charged are contained in the sixteenth, fees. seventeenth, eighteenth, twenty-eighth, and thirtythird sections of the said act. scribe the tariff 370. Section sixteen of the act authorizes the President President to prescribe, from time to time, the rates thorized to preor tariffs of fees to be charged for official services, of fees. and to designate what shall be regarded as official services, beside such as are expressly declared by law, in the business of the several legations, consulates, and commercial agencies, and to adapt the same, by such differences as may be necessary or proper, to each legation, consulate, or commercial agency, and to report such rates or tariffs annually to Congress. to collect the 371. It is made the duty of all consular officers Consular officonnected with the consulates or commercial agencies cers cers required of the United States to collect, for official services, prescribed fees. such, and only such fees as may be prescribed for their respective consulates and commercial agencies. 1 Statutes at Large, vol. xi. pp. 52-65. |