OFFICIAL DUTIES

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

SECRETARY OF STATE

The Secretary of State is charged, under the direction of the President, with the duties appertaining to correspondence with the public ministers and the consuls of the United States and with the representatives of foreign powers accredited to the United States, and to negotiations, of whatever character, relating to the foreign affairs of the United States. He has the custody of the Seal of the United States, and countersigns and affixes such Seal to all treaties, to Executive proclamations, to various commissions, and to warrants for the extradition of fugitives from justice. He is regarded as the first in rank among the members of the Cabinet. He is the custodian of the treaties made with foreign states and of the laws of the United States. He grants and issues passports, and exequaturs to foreign consuls in the United States are issued through his office. He publishes the acts and resolutions of Congress, amendments to the Constitution, and proclamations declaring the admission of new States into the Union.

UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE

The Under Secretary of State is the principal assistant of the Secretary of State in the discharge of his various functions, aiding in the formulation and execution of the foreign policies of the Government, in the reception of representatives of foreign governments, etc. In matters which do not require the personal attention of the Secretary of State he acts for the Secretary of State, and in the absence of the Secretary of State he becomes the Acting Secretary of State. The Under Secretary of State is charged with the general direction of the work of the Department of State and of the Foreign Service.

ASSISTANT SECRETARIES OF STATE

One Assistant Secretary of State is charged with the general administration of the Department of State and the Foreign Service and with supervision of matters relating to personnel and management. He is legislative, budget, and fiscal officer, charged with the supervision and preparation of estimates of appropriations of the Department and its several activities, their presentation to the Congress, and the allotments and expenditures of appropriations when made. He has supervision also over all matters pertaining to consular affairs, passports, visas, Foreign Service buildings, and international conferences. He is chairman of the Board of Foreign Service Personnel, the Board of Examiners for the Foreign Service, and the Foreign Service Officers' Training School Board.

The other three Assistant Secretaries of State are charged with such duties as may be assigned by the Secretary of State.

OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ADVISER

Drafts and interprets treaties, conventions, protocols, and other international agreements; deals with questions of municipal, foreign, and international law, and handles diplomatic claims of American citizens against foreign governments; claims of foreigners against the Government of the United States, including the preparation and presentation of the former class of cases to international arbitral tribunals and the defense of the United States before such tribunals in cases of claims made by foreign governments; questions of personal and private rights of aliens in the United States and of American citizens in foreign countries, such as acquisition, inheritance, and transfer of property; arrest, detention, fines, imprisonment, personal injury, acts of insurgents, taxation, breach or annulment of concessions or other contracts; failure to pay interest or principal on Government obligations, sequestration or confiscation of property; complaints regarding action of executive, legislative, judicial, or military authorities; questions concerning the rights and privileges of American diplomatic and consular

officers abroad and of foreign diplomatic and consular officers in the United States, and concerning the rights and immunities of sovereigns and public property; questions relating to the jurisdiction over and control of public or private vessels; questions relating to citizenship, naturalization, expatriation, extradition, and extraterritoriality; questions relating to the acts and rights of belligerents, neutrals, and insurgents on land or sea; and a large number of miscellaneous legal questions not included in the above classification.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF CLERK AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Is charged with the general supervision of the clerical personnel and messenger service of the Department; supervision over the property of the Department; expenditures of appropriations for salaries and contingent expenses of the Department and the preparation of annual budget estimates therefor; office space; authentications; custody of the Seal of the United States and of the seal of the Department; classification of positions; efficiency ratings; operation of coordinating service for the translation of documents for all departments and agencies of the Government; miscellaneous matters; supervision over Appointment, Stenographic, Mail, Supply, and Equipment and Repair Sections, and the emergency

room.

BOARD OF FOREIGN SERVICE PERSONNEL

The duties of the Board of Foreign Service Personnel, under Executive Order No. 5642 of June 8, 1931, are: To submit to the Secretary of State for approval lists of Foreign Service officers in which all Foreign Service officers shall be graded in accordance with their relative efficiency and value to the Service; to recommend promotions in the Foreign Service, and to furnish the Secretary of State with lists of Foreign Service officers who have demonstrated special capacity for promotion to the grade of minister; to submit to the Secretary of State for his approval and for transmission thereafter to the President, the names of those officers and employees of the Department of State who, after 5 years of continuous service in an executive or quasi-executive position, are recommended for appointment by transfer to the position of Foreign Service officer; to submit to the Secretary of State the names of those Foreign Service officers who are recommended for designation as counselors of embassy or legation; to recommend to the Secretary of State the assignment of Foreign Service officers to posts and the transfer of such officers from one branch of the Service to the other; to consider controversies and delinquencies among the Service personnel and to recommend to the Secretary of State appropriate disciplinary action where required; to determine, for submission to the Secretary of State after considering recommendations of the Division of Foreign Service Personnel, that the efficiency rating of an officer is unsatisfactory, thereby meaning below the standard required for the Service, in order that the Secretary of State may take appropriate action.

DIVISION OF FOREIGN SERVICE PERSONNEL

The duties of the Division of Foreign Service Personnel are: To maintain contact with Foreign Service officers and employees while on visits to the United States; to discuss with Foreign Service officers ways for the development and improvement of their work; to confer with the divisions of the Department concerning the work of Foreign Service officers; to interview applicants and prospective applicants for the Foreign Service; to examine and recommend for appointment applicants for positions as subordinate employees in the Foreign Service; to collect, collate, and record pertinent data relating to Foreign Service personnel; to keep the efficiency records of all Foreign Servic eofficers and employees; to hold strictly confidential all personnel records of the Foreign Service, and to reveal no papers, documents, data, or reports relating thereto, except to the Secretary of State and to the members of the Personnel Board; to keep the records of the Board of Examiners for the Foreign Service and attend to all details connected with the holding of examinations for the Foreign Service; to submit recommendations on all matters within the authority of the Board of Foreign Service Personnel; to attend, through the personnel officers assigned to the division, the meetings of the Board of Foreign Service Personnel when so directed.

FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS' TRAINING SCHOOL

The Foreign Service Officers' Training School is maintained for the instruction of new appointees to the Foreign Service. Only those persons who have successfully passed the examination for the position of Foreign Service officer are

admitted to the school. It is under the direction of a board composed of the Assistant Secretaries of State composing the Board of Foreign Service Personnel, one Foreign Service officer assigned for duty in the Division of Foreign Personnel, and the director of the Foreign Service Officers' Training School.

DIVISION OF FAR EASTERN AFFAIRS

Has general charge, under the Secretaries, of relations, diplomatic and consular, political and economic, with China, Japan, and Siam, and (in conjunction with the Division of Western European Affairs and other interested divisions) with the Far Eastern possessions and territories of European nations and the foreigncontrolled islands of the Pacific not included therein, and of such matters as concern this Department in relation to the American-controlled islands of the Pacific and to the Far East in general; and has charge of such matters as concern this Department in relation to the control of the traffic in narcotic drugs.

DIVISION OF LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS

Has general charge, under the Secretaries, of relations, diplomatic and consular, political and economic, with Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

DIVISION OF WESTERN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

Has general charge, under the Secretaries, of relations, diplomatic and consular, political and economic, with Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain (including Northern Ireland, British Dominions beyond the Seas, India), Hungary, Irish Free State, Italy, Liberia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Union of South Africa, and international organizations in Europe; European possessions in the Far East in conjunction with the Division of Far Eastern Affairs.

DIVISION OF NEAR EASTERN AFFAIRS

Has general charge, under the Secretaries, of relations, diplomatic and consular, political and economic, with Afghanistan, Albania, Bulgaria, Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Ethiopia, Greece, Iraq, Palestine and Trans-Jordan, Persia, Rumania, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Syria and the Lebanon, Turkey, and Yugoslavia.

DIVISION OF MEXICAN AFFAIRS

Has general charge, under the Secretaries, of relations, diplomatic and consular political and economic, with Mexico.

DIVISION OF EASTERN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

Has general charge, under the Secretaries, of relations, diplomatic and consular, political and economic, with Estonia, Finland, Free City of Danzig, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

OFFICE OF THE ECONOMIC ADVISER

Gives advice and recommendations to the Department on questions of general economic policy; unifies and coordinates economic matters within the Department; establishes and maintains liaison with the various economic bureaus in other departments; handles economic cases which have no regional character or which overlap geographical divisions.

PASSPORT DIVISION

Is charged with the examination and adjudication of applications for passports and for registration in consulates of the United States as American citizens; issuance of passports; issuance of instructions on passport matters to the executives of the several insular possessions; supervision over the Department's passport agencies in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston; direction of clerks of courts in passport matters; correspondence regarding citizenship, passports, registration, and right to protection while abroad; issuance of letters of introduction.

OFFICE OF THE HISTORICAL ADVISER

Gives advice and submits recommendations to the Secretary of State on historical and constitutional questions and matters of policy relating to current questions before the department; is charged with the editing and compilation of the Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States, and of other publications; has supervision of the work of the geographer of the department; has custody of the archives of the department up to August 15, 1906, the originals of all treaties to which the United States is a party, the originals of all acts and resolutions of Congress, Executive orders, proclamations, and amendments to the Constitution; has custody of all records involving the preparation of the certificate of the Secretary of State proclaiming that an amendment is a part of the Constitution and of all records relating to presidential electors.

DIVISION OF RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION

Is charged with the editing and compilation of Foreign Relations of the United States, the session laws, Statutes at Large, Executive orders, and proclamations; with the preparation, custody, and distribution of all publications issued by the department with the exception of those publications which are prepared in the office of the historical adviser; has supervision of the library of the department, of the work of the editor of the Territorial Papers of the United States, and of all matters relating to printing and binding and the submitting of recommendations concerning the allocation of the printing and binding fund.

DIVISION OF CURRENT INFORMATION

Is charged with preparation of news items for the press; receiving and replying to inquiries from newspaper correspondents; preparation and distribution to officials of the department and the Foreign Service of daily press summaries and special articles; furnishing them with press bulletins, copies of texts, and general information bearing upon foreign relations.

DIVISION OF FOREIGN SERVICE ADMINISTRATION

Is charged with the general administration of the Foreign Service, including matters of appropriations and expenditures, rentals, equipment and supplies, organizations, instruction of diplomatic and consular officers, etc.; correspondence relating to the foregoing and to customs courtesies and free entry, letters rogatory, decoration of American citizens by foreign governments, international exchange of publications, diplomatic pouch service between the United States and foreign countries, and the designation of commercial, military, and naval attachés; whereabouts and welfare of Americans abroad, shipping and seamen, settlement of estates of deceased Americans in foreign countries, consular protection_of American interests and, other than commerce, the general work of consular offices, such as immigration, quarantine, notarial acts, protection of the customs revenues, etc.

DIVISION OF PROTOCOL AND CONFERENCES

Is charged with presentation to the President of ambassadors and ministers accredited to this Government; with correspondence concerning their acceptability to this Government and of correspondence concerning acceptability to foreign governments of like officers of the United States; with questions regarding the rights and immunities in the United States of representatives of foreign governments; with arrangements for all ceremonials of a national or international character in the United States or participated in by the United States abroad; with the entertainment and protection of distinguished foreign visitors; with questions concerning customs and other courtesies to foreign officials and distinguished visitors to the United States as well as to American officials abroad; with making arrangements for the visits of foreign naval vessels, foreign military organizations, and other matters of ceremonial in connection with the White House and the Department of State; with the preparation of the Diplomatic List; with questions concerning medals and decorations conferred by foreign governments upon military, naval, or civil officers of the United States; with the preparation of communications from the President to heads of foreign states; with the obtaining of permission for American aviators to make flights in foreign countries and for foreign aviators to make flights in the United States; with arrangements for international conferences, congresses, expositions, and conventions, in which the United States is to participate, at home or abroad, and in cooperation with other branches of the Government and interested persons and