are allowed to receive for their compensation. In no event can they receive from these sources more than the amount actually paid for rent, which must never exceed the rate of $500 for the year. They are not authorized to draw for the expense of office rent or for their compensation either upon the Department of State or the Treasury. The receipts out of which office rent may be paid are those of the consulate, exclusive of such as may arise from consular agencies.R. S., sec. 1732.

546. Postage.-Consular officers will be required to accompany their postage account with proper vouchers, showing the number and denominations of the stamps purchased and charged for in the account. (Paragraph 542.) Postage is not to be charged in the account of a consular officer except on dispatches and letters received and written by him on official business and by reason of his office. (Paragraph 459.) The accounts for this disbursement will be carefully examined. The Treasury Department has decided that it is unlawful for consular officers to buy postage stamps with Government funds for their private or business letters, or to include in their accounts their private postage as a part of their expenditures for the Government. No allowance for postage of a purely personal character will be made. (Paragraph 445.)

547. Economy in postage.-Consuls will take care to avoid unnecessary expenditures for postage. The use of light paper in formal returns, the limitation of their size, and the excision of blank half sheets from short inclosures are suggested as means to this end.

548. Stationery. The stationery ordinarily needed in a consular office is in general furnished by the Department of State. A schedule of all the articles furnished to consulates is sent out periodically. By prompt notice to the Department of deficiency likely to occur, consuls need never be forced to purchase such articles in the local market.

549. Freight and charges on boxes and packages to and from the Department. When boxes and packages are addressed to or from the consul, the voucher should be accompanied by a brief memorandum, showing in general terms their contents. 550. Flagstaff and fixtures, flag, seal and press, record books, and blank forms.-Principal consular officers are authorized to purchase a suitable flagstaff and fixtures on permission first obtained from the Department of State. Flags, seals and presses, record books, and blank forms are supplied by the Department on requisition.

551. Furniture. It is expected of consular officers that their offices should be suitably and respectably furnished. For this purpose they are allowed for furniture such articles as the Secretary of State shall deem necessary for the good of the service. In all cases, before incurring expense for furniture, consular officers will obtain the sanction of the Department of State; and in their applications they will be careful to state the articles required and the estimated cost of each. (Paragraph 431.)

552. Binding.-A consular officer should, as fast as the correspondence accumulates in sufficient quantities, cause it to be neatly bound in the manner prevailing in the consulate. If practicable, it is better to have this work done at his office. The cost is a proper item of contingent expense. Consular reports and printed documents received at the consulate should not be bound without permission obtained after submitting an estimate of the cost.

553. Charges not allowed, etc.-No allowance will be made to consular officers for expenditures for the following objects: Repairs, or care, or cleaning of office or attendance; donations, taxes, carriage hire, traveling expenses, statistics, newspapers, messenger service, and Chinese writers, unless authorized; contributions to charitable or other objects; foreign flags; telegrams, except in cases of exigency; printed 17824 C R-15

books or maps; clerk hire, unless provided for by law and under authority from the Department of State; or for copying or translations, except when made by special order of the Department. Repairs, however, of the official seal or of furniture, and the expense of moving the archives and property on a change of location of the consulate, are proper charges against the Government. So also is the amount of duties and charges paid at foreign custom-houses on official supplies of stationery, flags, furniture, or other articles sent by the Department. Fireproof safes are provided only for the more important consulates and upon satisfactory representation of the necessity for their use.

ALLOWANCE FOR CLERKS AT CONSULATES.

554. The account for allowance for clerks at those offices for which it has been provided (paragraph 27) must be rendered separately to the Department of State. It should be accompanied by the receipt of the person employed as clerk, and by the consul's certificate that the service has been performed as charged for, and that the account is correct and just. If it is necessary to draw for the amount (paragraphs 567, 572), or for any part of it, the draft should be a separate draft drawn upon the Secretary of State. (Form No. 114.)

CONSULAR COURT AND PRISON ACCOUNTS IN NON-CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES.

555. Accounts for salaries of marshals, interpreters, and guards.— Consuls will pay the salaries of marshals at consular courts; the salaries of interpreters at consulates in China, Japan, and Zanzibar; and the expenses of interpreters and guards in Turkish dominions. Separate accounts and vouchers for such payments should be forwarded quarterly to the Department of State in the same dispatch transmitting accounts for contingent expenses and clerk hire. Drafts for these accounts

should be drawn upon the Secretary of State. (Form No. 165; paragraph 517.)

556. Expenses of prisons for American convicts.-The account for expenses of prisons for American convicts is to be transmitted quarterly, with the necessary vouchers, when such expenses shall have been incurred, to the Department of State. This account covers the actual cost of rent of prison and of keeping and feeding prisoners. It also covers the wages of keepers at Shanghai, Kanagawa, and in the Turkish dominions. It is provided by law, however, that no more than 50 cents per day for the keeping and feeding of each prisoner while actually confined shall be allowed. It has been decided that the cost of prison rent is not to be computed in this per diem allowance; and medical attendance and medicines, when required, are also exempted from being included. Wages of keepers at Shanghai, Kanagawa, and in the Turkish dominions are especially provided for in the law independently of the 50 cents per day limit. But no allowance shall be made for the keeping and feeding of any prisoner who is able to pay or does pay the above sum of 50 cents per day, and the consular officer shall certify to the fact of inability in every case. Form No. 165 is suitable for use in rendering this account.-28 Stat. L., 824.

RELIEF AND PROTECTION OF AMERICAN SEAMEN.

557. Accounts relating to seamen.-The returns to be made under this general account are: (1) Statement of relief of seamen and account current (Form No. 94); (2) detailed list of seamen discharged, shipped, deserted, and deceased (Form No. 124); (3) return of seamen who have come upon the consulate otherwise than in the employment of vessels or by regular discharge therefrom (Form No. 126). All of these returns are to be transmitted to the Auditor for the State and other Departments.

But it is not necessary to send the blank forms when

there have been no transactions relating to seamen; mention of the fact by the consular officer in a dispatch will be sufficient. The third form mentioned, Form No. 126, is to be filled up and forwarded on the date of the arrival of the seamen at the consulate. The others are to be rendered quarterly. Attention is called to previous instructions herein for information as to the items to be embraced in the account for the relief of seamen and the vouchers to sustain them. (For forms of sundry vouchers, see Forms Nos. 95, 96, 97, and 98.) 558. Statement of relief of seamen and account current. This return should be prepared as shown in Form No. 94, and should be a complete statement of the entire receipts and disbursements on account of seamen during the quarter for which it is rendered. Where seamen have been discharged with one month's extra wages, the grounds on which they have been so discharged should be noted on the statement in the column headed "Remarks." So, also, where seamen have come upon a consulate casually, or otherwise than in the employment of vessels or by regular discharge therefrom, the manner in which they came upon the consulate should be stated, with the names of the vessels on which they were last employed and the ports to which they belong; and particulars (as full as possible) should be given showing how and why such seamen left the employment of their vessels. The statement of account at the bottom of the form should show on the debit side the amount disbursed for the relief of seamen and the balance of wages paid to the seamen, and on the credit side it should show the full amount of extra wages and arrears and other moneys received for seamen. For any balance that may be due from the United States on this account, the consul may draw on the Secretary of the Treasury, unless he has in his hands sufficient funds to pay the same from surplus fees.

559. Detailed list of seamen discharged, shipped, deserted, and deceased (Form No. 124). This return is clearly explained by