Official Document Text
Source: The American Presidency Project (UCSB Archive)
By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 1752 of the Revised Statutes (22 U.S.C. § 132), it is ordered that the Instructions to Diplomatic Officers and the Consular Regulations be, and they are hereby, amended as follows: 1. The parenthetical reference to R.S. 1751 in section VIII-10 of the Instructions to Diplomatic Officers is changed to "22 U.S.C. § 126". 2. Section XVII-2 of the Instructions to Diplomatic Officers is amended to read as follows: "XVII-2. Inventory of Government property "Every officer in charge of a diplomatic mission shall maintain a detailed card inventory of all Government property in his custody, whether in the office or in the residence quarters, including record books and archives. No Government property shall be disposed of, or removed from the inventory, without the advance authorization of the Department. An inventory of all Government property must be submitted to the Department by the officer in charge upon the establishment of a new office or the occupation of a new residence. A retiring officer will not be given a certificate of nonindebtedness to the Government until he has complied fully with the provisions of the regulations respecting inventories. "The inventory must be prepared with the typewriter, on cards provided by the Department, in five sections designated respectively: ‘Office Furniture and Equipment'; ‘Reference Books'; ‘Record Books and Archives'; ‘Codes and Insignia'; and ‘Household Furniture and Furnishings'. Each card shall bear the initials or signature of the officer in charge at the time of its preparation, and the continuing responsibility for the items composing the inventory shall thereafter be evidenced by an inventory transfer form which shall be prepared upon the delivery of the official property, either in the event of the transfer of the officer in charge or of his departure on or return from home leave of absence (but not in the case of simple leave). A complete card-index inventory will be maintained in each office, and a complete card-index inventory of every office in the Foreign Service will be kept in the Department. "Upon the transfer of the officer in charge, or upon his departure on or return from home leave of absence (but not on simple leave), the inventory shall be carefully checked by both the officer relinquishing charge and the officer assuming charge and the inventory transfer form or forms shall be executed, signed by the officer receiving the property, and transmitted to the Department. Such executed forms shall be prima facie evidence of the Government property for which the officer is responsible." 3. Section XVII-16 of the Instructions to Diplomatic Officers is amended to read as follows: "XVII-16. Privately paid messages "Telegrams, cablegrams, and telephone messages of nonofficial character dealing with matters of personal interest which citizens of the United States may request the Department of State to send to a mission, or a mission to send to the Department of State, where the conditions are such as to justify the use of official channels, may be transmitted only at the expense of the applicants and after either the payment of the cost or a satisfactory assurance of its payment." 4. Section 61 of the Consular Regulations is amended to read as follows: "61. Location of office. Consular officers who are prohibited from engaging in business are expected to establish their offices at the most convenient central location that the sum allowed for office rent will permit. No subordinate or branch office will be permitted in the same place with the consular office. (Secs. 64-67.) " 5. Section 110A is prescribed in the Consular Regulations as follows: "110A. Visits by naval aircraft. On the occasion of a visit by naval aircraft to a port in which consular officers of the United States may be stationed, it shall be the duty of the consular officer in charge to send a representative to meet such aircraft and extend the usual courtesies. If time and circumstances permit, the regulations regarding official calls shall be carried out." 6. Section 368 of the Consular Regulations is amended to read as follows: "368. Documents and visas. Diplomatic and consular officers, except consular agents, are required, after proper investigation, to visa for and issue to Chinese of the admissible classes such documents as are prescribed by executive orders, and the laws, rules, and regulations governing the admission of Chinese persons Into the United States or territory under its jurisdiction. The Secretary of State issues such instructions to diplomatic and consular officers as may be necessary. Such instructions are a part of these regulations." 7. Section 372 of the Consular Regulations is canceled. 8. Section XVII-3 of the Instructions to Diplomatic Officers is amended, and a new section in the Consular Regulations numbered 430A is prescribed, to read as follows: "Responsibility of officer for Government property. Officers are held responsible for tiie due preservation and care of Government residence and office furniture, furnishings, and other property, and for the cost of replacement or of making good any damage arising from waste, neglect, or improper usage. They are also held responsible for the safeguarding and preservation of records and archives. "Sections 128 and 129 of the penal code of the United States (35 Stat. 1111-1112, 18 U.S.C., §§ 234-235) provide as follows: " ‘SEC. 128. Whoever shall willfully and unlawfully conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, or destroy, or attempt to conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, or destroy, or, with intent to conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, destroy, or steal, shall take and carry away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. " ‘SEC. 129. Whoever, having the custody of any record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing specified in the preceding section, shall willfully and unlawfully conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, falsify, or destroy any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or thing, shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall moreover forfeit his office and be forever afterward disqualified from holding any office under the Government of the United States.' " 9. Section 431 of the Consular Regulations is amended to read as follows: "431. Inventory required. Every officer in charge of a diplomatic or consular office shall maintain a detailed card inventory of all Government property in his custody, whether in the office or in the residence quarters, including record books and archives. No Government property shall be disposed of, or removed from the Inventory, without the advance authorization of the Department. An inventory of all Government property must be submitted to the Department by the officer in charge upon the establishment of a new office or the occupation of a new residence. A retiring officer will not be given a certificate of nonindebtedness to the Government until he has complied fully with the provisions of the regulations respecting inventories." 10. The title of section 432 of the Consular Regulations is changed to "Preparation of inventory and method of operation". 11. Section 433 of the Consular Regulations is amended to read as follows: "433. Inventory at transfer of office. Upon the transfer of the officer in charge, or upon his departure on or return from home leave of absence (but not on simple leave), the inventory shall be carefully checked by the officer relinquishing charge and the officer assuming charge and the inventory transfer form or forms shall be executed, signed by the officer receiving the property, and transmitted to the Department. Such executed forms shall be prima facie evidence of the Government property for which the officer is responsible." 12. Section 451 of the Consular Regulations and section XV-4 of the Instructions to Diplomatic Officers, are each amended to read as follows: "Presents and testimonials. No diplomatic or consular officer shall ask or accept for himself or any other person, any present, emolument, pecuniary favor, office, or title of any kind from any foreign government. (U.S. Const., Art. I, sec. 9, cl. 8, 22 U.S.C., § 126.) Any present, decoration, order, testimonial in acknowledgment of services rendered to the citizens or governments of foreign states, or other thing, which shall be conferred on or presented by any foreign government to any officer of the United States, shall be tendered through the Department of State, and not to the individual in person, but such present, decoration, or other thing shall not be delivered by the Department of State unless so authorized by act of Congress. (5 U.S.C., § 115.)" 13. The first paragraph of section 480 of the Consular Regulations is amended to read as follows: "480. Service of legal process generally not authorized. Consular officers or employees are not authorized to serve legal process such as subpoenas, citations, and complaints, in connection with cases pending in Federal or State courts in the United States except as provided in section 481." 14. Section 481 of the Consular Regulations is amended to read as follows: "481. When legal process may be served. Consular officers shall serve subpoenas issued by courts of the United States in the following cases unless such action is prohibited by local law: "(a) Subpoenas issued for failure to appear or to testify when required by letters rogatory. Whenever letters rogatory shall issue out of any court of the United States, either with or without interrogatories addressed to any court of any foreign country, to take the testimony of any witness, being a citizen of the United States or domiciled therein, and such witness, having been personally notified by it according to the practice of such court, to appear and testify pursuant to such letters rogatory and such witness shall neglect to appear, or having appeared shall decline, refuse, or neglect to answer to any question which may be propounded to him by or under the authority of such court, to which he would be required to make answer were he being examined before the court issuing such letters, the court out of which said letters issued may upon proper showing order that a subpoena issue addressed to any consul of the United States within any country in which such witness may be, commanding such witness to appear before the said court at a time and place therein designated. (28 U.S.C., § 711.) "(b) Subpoena to attend trial of criminal actions. Whenever the attendance at the trial of any criminal action of a witness, being a citizen of the United States or domiciled therein, who is beyond the jurisdiction of the United States, is desired by the Attorney General or any assistant or district attorney acting under him, the judge of the court before which such action is pending, or who is to sit in the trial of the same, may, upon proper showing, order that a subpoena issue, addressed to any consul of the United States within any country in which such witness may be, commanding such witness to appear before the said court at a time and place therein designated. (28 U.S.C., § 712.) "Service of subpoena. When a subpoena is issued and forwarded to an American consular officer as provided in either of the two preceding paragraphs, the consular officer shall, at the request of the clerk of the court issuing such subpoena or at the request of the officer causing such subpoena to be issued, serve said subpoena personally upon such witness and also serve any orders to show cause, rules, judgments, or decrees when requested by the court or United States marshal, and make a return thereof to the court out of which the same issued, first tendering to the witness the amount of his necessary expenses in traveling to and from the place at which the court sits and his attendance thereon, which amount shall be determined by the judge on issuing the order for the subpoena and supplied to the consular officer making the service. (28 U.S.C., § 713.) When the subpoena or order is forwarded it is usually accompanied by instructions directing exactly how service is to be made and how the return of service is to be executed. These instructions should be carefully followed. "Proceedings to cancel fraudulent naturalization. Under the act of June 29, 1906, consular officers of the United States in foreign countries shall from time to time, through the Department of State, furnish the Department of Justice with the names of those within their respective jurisdictions who have certificates of citizenship and who have taken permanent residence in the country of their nativity, or in any other foreign country. (8 U.S.C., § 405.) In view of this provision, consular officers may properly assist in the delivery to designated persons of documents relating to fraudulent naturalization which may be forwarded to them by duly authorized officials of United States courts, and in such cases delivery may be made, where deemed advisable, by a member of the consular staff." 15. The first paragraph of section 492 of the Consular Regulations is amended to read as follows: "492. Foreign Service officers. Foreign Service officers receive salaries fixed by law and are entitled to compensation at the rate of their respective salaries (secs. 4-5). "Foreign Service officers appointed or promoted during a recess of the Senate shall be paid the compensation of the position to which appointed or promoted from the date of such appointment or promotion until the end of the next session of the Senate if they have not theretofore been confirmed by the Senate, or until their rejection by the Senate before the end of its next session. If the Senate should reject or fail to confirm the promotion of a Foreign Service officer during the session following the date of such promotion, the Foreign Service officer shall automatically be reinstated in the position from which he was promoted, such reinstatement to be effective, in the event of rejection of the nomination, from the date of rejection; and in the event of failure of the Senate to act on the nomination during the session following the promotion, from the termination of that session. (49 Stat. 436.) "In the payment of compensation the following directions are to be observed:" 16. The Tariff of United States Consular Fees prescribed by section 533 of the Consular Regulations is amended as follows: (a) Item 3 is amended by the deletion of the parenthetical reference to "Form 128". (b) Item 8 is amended by the addition thereto of the following clause: "For a certified copy of executed form for repatriation of native-born American women under act of June 25, 1936 _______________ $1.00." (c) Item 31 is amended by the addition thereto of the following exception: "Exception— No fee is chargeable for administering the oath of allegiance under the act of June 25, 1936, to a native-born American woman who lost her citizenship by marriage to an alien and whose marriage is terminated." (d) Item 52 is amended by the addition thereto of the following exception: "Exception— This item is not applicable to criminal cases under the act of June 20, 1936, Public No. 734, 74th Congress, (sec. 489S.)" 17. Section 604 of the Consular Regulations is amended by changing the heading "At inland consulates" to "At all consulates" and by adding to the section the following: "(5) A postage record in which a daily account of postage is kept. "(6) Registered mail book containing a record of all registered mail addressed to the office. "(7) A record of immigration registrations or waiting list." FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT THE WHITE HOUSE, September 16, 1936.