Agreement with Consular Agent. 476. Consular Agents are entitled, as compensation for their services, to such pay from the Government as their official services to American vessels and seamen may entitle them, and to such fees as they may collect under these regulations, or to 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 is appointed is entitled to the residue, if any, in addition to any other compensation allowed him by law for his services therein. But all moneys received for fees at any Vice-Consulates or Consular Agencies of the United States, beyond the sum of one thousand dollars, in any one year, and all moneys received by any Consul or Consul-General from Consular Agencies or Vice-Consulates in excess of one thousand dollars in the aggregate from all such Agencies or Vice-Consulates, must be accounted for to the Secretary of the Treasury, and held subject to his draft or other directions. 477. It is usual, in view of the responsibility to which a principal Officer is held for the acts of his agents, for him to enter into an agreement with the latter as to the division of the receipts of the agency within the limit allowed to each for his services. This agreement relates both to the time and manner of making the division, and to the share to be received by each. The Agent is not authorized to take precedence over the principal in the division, by first deducting his share to the exclusion of the principal. The Department of State is averse to interposing in such agreements, and will not intervene unless in cases of manifest R. S., sec. 1703. injustice. The right is, however, at all times reserved not only to appoint such agents directly by the Department without reference to the principal, but also to assign such share of the fees and compensation for services for the Agent's remuneration as shall be deemed proper. Compensation of Consular Clerks. and 1705; 18 Stats., 70. 478. Consular Clerks appointed by the President receive R. S., secs. 1704 a salary of one thousand dollars a year. Those who have remained continuously in service for the period of five years are entitled to a salary of one thousand two hundred dollars a year. They are also paid the actual and necessary expenses of travel between their residences and their posts of duty on appointment and return, and during a transfer, under orders, from one post to another. 479. Consular Clerks receive their salaries from the date they begin to discharge the duties to which they are assigned by the President, which date is usually simultaneous with that on which they take the oath of office. Time when compensation begins. Vice-Consul. 480. Consular Clerks are not unfrequently appointed When appointed Vice-Consuls-General, Vice-Consuls, and Vice-Commercial Agents, and such appointments are encouraged by the Department of State. When acting in this character they are entitled to the compensation of a Vice-Consular Officer, but not in addition to the salary of Consular Clerk. They may, in such cases, elect which of the two compensations they will take. 481. An appropriation of twenty thousand dollars has been made for Interpreters to be employed at Consulates in China and Japan and for Interpreters and Guards at the Consulates at Beirut, Cairo, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Smyrna, in the Turkish dominions, and at Zanzibar, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of State. The compensation of these officers is provided for yearly in the appropriation act and is subject to such changes as may from time to time be made by Congress. The Secretary of State may also make such allowance as may to him seem proper, to any Interpreter, for clerical services in addition to his pay as Interpreter, as provided for in paragraph 28. 482. Annual salaries at a rate not exceeding one thousand dollars in addition to the fees allowed by the Ministers respectively in China, Japan, and Turkey are likewise appropriated by Congress for Marshals at Consular Courts. Of these officers, one cach is stationed at Amoy, Foochow, Hankow, and Tien-Tsin, in China, and one each at Kanagawa, Constantinople, and Nagasaki. 483. The salaries of these officers are payable from the time when they begin to devote themselves to the public service. This time is usually when they take the oath of office, and give the bond for faithful performance of duty required by law. The salary of a public officer (in the absence of any law otherwise fixing the time), whose duties require Compensation of 1887. Compensation of Marshals. R. S., sec. 4111. Time when com. pensation begins. Opinions of At- torneys-General, Clerks at Consulates. Allowance for daries not to be exceeded. for actual amount paid. him to leave the country, begins from the time he actually enters upon such duties as are preliminary to his departure for his field of service. Every such officer has preliminary duties to perform before he leaves the country, and after he has taken the official obligations in the manner prescribed by law, as by making oath and giving bond, the time and labor devoted to these preliminary duties, as well as the time occupied in reaching his official post, are just as much spent in the public service as though he were already at that post exercising its more immediate functions. But if in point of fact it appears that the time when he qualifies is not the time when his official service begins, the latter is the date from which his salary runs. 484. Clerks at Consulates, except those at the places mentioned in paragraph 28, receive no compensation from the Government, and, if employed, are to be paid by the priuipal Officer. The selection and removal of such clerks are left to the Consul, but it is desirable that the name and nationality of each clerk should be reported to the Department of State. 485. When an allowance is made to a Consular Officer by Congress, or by the Department, for the hire of clerks, the amount named in the act, or by the Department, must not be exceeded, and if the sum actually expended for clerkhire is less than the allowance, the Consul must so report, and the vouchers accompanying his account must state the amount actually paid in each case. 486. When, under authority of law, or by direction of the Secretary of State, an Officer employs any Clerk, Dragoman, Interpreter, Messenger, or like subordinate at the expense Vouchers to be of the Government, the vouchers presented with the Officer's quarterly accounts must show the amount actually paid to the employés. Any Officer so charged with the expenditure of an appropriation or an allowance, who shall require any clerk or employé to receipt or give a voucher for an amount greater than that actually received by him for the official service he performs is liable to the charge of embezzlement. (R. S., secs. 3490, 5421, 5438, 5483.) The same rule applies to all vouchers for moneys expended for any official purpose whatever; they must represent the amounts actually and necessarily paid for the purposes specified, to the exclusion of any pecuniary or material benefit directly or indirectly accruing to the officer making the expenditize and accounting therefor, or to any person other than the one signing the receipt. 487. No Consular Officer is permitted to receive any additional compensation, directly or indirectly, by way of commission or otherwise, for receiving or disbursing the wages or extra wages of seamen, or for advances made to them; nor is he allowed to derive any profit from, or be interested in, the supplies of any kind furnished to seamen, or in the compensation allowed for their transportation to the United States. In the latter case, however, if a Consular Officer is the owner of, or is otherwise interested in, the vessel bringing the seamen home, he is not prohibited from receiving such reasonable compensation as may be provided by law for the transportation. No commissions allowed. R. S., sec. 1719. No extra compensation. 488. The compensation provided by law for the several grades of Consular Officers, is in full for all services they R. S., sec. 1743, may be required to perform, and for all personal expenses that may be incurred under whatever law, treaty, or instructions the services may be performed. pard. 489. Consuls who are compensated by salaries appropri- Salaries, how ated annually by Congress are authorized to pay themselves from the fees they may collect, if these shall be sufficient for the purpose. If not sufficient, a draft may be drawn at the end of each quarter for the deficiency, or for the whole quarter's salary, as the case may be. In all cases drafts for salary should be drawn upon the Secretary of the Treasury. Drafts for salary and for all other accounts must be drawn only at the end of each quarter, and for amounts then due, and must be preceded or accompanied by the corresponding accounts and vouchers. But in case of need, salary may be drawn before the end of the quarter, provided a certifi cate be attached to the draft of the amount of fees received up to the time of drawing. Only the difference between the amount of such receipt from fees and the amount of salary accrued to the date of draft must in any case be drawn for. 490. It is the custom for the principal Officer to pay the salaries of Consular Clerks, Marshals, and Interpreters from Official fees, how prescribed. the fees at the post at which they may be stationed. If these shall not be sufficient, a draft may be drawn as for other salaries. ARTICLE XXV. Consular Fees, 491. The President is authorized to prescribe, from time R. S., sec. 1745. to time, the rates or tariffs of fees to be charged for official services, and to designate what shall be regarded as official services, besides such as are expressly declared by law, in the business of the several Consulates and Commercial Agencies, and to adapt the same, by such differences as may be necessary or proper, to each office; and it is made the duty of all Consular Officers to collect, when authorized to collect any fee (see Paragraph 492) for such official services such, and only such, fees as may be prescribed for their respective offices. It must be understood that Consular Court fees are official, and that they must be adjusted at the Treasury Department as in the case of other official ac Act of June 26, 1884, sec. 12. 23 Stat., p. 56 ican vesssels. counts. 492. By law no fees named in the tariff of Consular fees prescribed by order of the President can be collected (from charged to Amer- the vessels) by Consular Officers for official services to American vessels and seamen. Consular Officers, however, who are compensated by fees must furnish the master of every such vessel with an itemized statement of such services performed on account of said vessel, with the fee so prescribed for each service, and also make a detailed report to the Secretary of the Treasury of such services and fees, under such regulations as the Secretary of State may prescribe; and the Secretary of the Treasury shall allow Consular Officers who are paid in whole or in part by fees, such compensation for said services as they would have received prior to the pas sage of this law. Such services, however, in order to be compensated, must, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury, have been necessarily rendered. For full instruc tions in regard to accounts for services, see paragraph 589. Opinion of Atty. Gen., July 20, 1885, 493. The terms "vessel of the United States," and Department Circus American vessel," as used in section 12 of the act of June lar, July 28, 1885. |