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RULES OF PRECEDENCE AS BETWEEN CERTAIN OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES

Executive Order No. 4705, August 10, 1927, Regarding Rules of Precedence as Between Certain Officers of the United States

The following rules of precedence will henceforth be observed as between (1) Ambassadors, Ministers, and officers of the Foreign Service of the United States; (2) officers of the United States Army; (3) officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps; and (4) Foreign Commerce officers of the United States. Previous executive orders inconsistent herewith are rescinded.

1. In the country to which he is accredited, the chief of the diplomatic mission takes precedence over all officers of the Army, Navy, or Foreign Commerce Service.

2. In diplomatic missions the following ranking will be observed: Counselors take place and precedence next in succession after the Chief of Mission.

Military and Naval attachés take place and precedence next in succession after the Counselor, or at a post where the Department of State has deemed it unnecessary to assign a Counselor, after the senior first secretary. Military and Naval attachés take precedence as between themselves according to their respective grades and seniority therein.

Commercial attachés rank with but after Military and Naval attachés.

Assistant Military and Naval attachés take place and precedence next after second secretaries. Assistant Military and Naval attachés take precedence as between themselves according to their respective grades and seniority therein.

Assistant Commercial attachés rank with but after Assistant Military and Naval attachés.

In the absence of the titular head of the mission, the senior diplomatic officer will act as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, unless otherwise directed by the Secretary of State, and as such will take precedence over all members of the staff of the mission.

At ceremonies and receptions where the members of the mission take individual position, in the lists furnished foreign governments for inclusion in their diplomatic lists, and in the Register of the Department of State, place and precedence will follow the ranking indicated in the paragraphs above.

At ceremonies and receptions where diplomatic missions are present as a body, the Military, Naval and Commercial attachés will form distinct groups, and follow in that order the diplomatic personnel of the mission.

3. In international conferences at which the American delegates possess plenipotentiary powers, the senior Counselor of Embassy or Legation attached to the delegation, takes place and precedence immediately after the delegates, unless otherwise instructed by the Secretary of State.

4. As between officers of the Departments of State and Com

merce:

(a) The senior Foreign Commerce Officer functioning in a consular district in which there is no diplomatic mission, shall rank with but after the senior Foreign Service Officer functioning in that district.

(b) Foreign Commerce Officers in a consular district, other than the senior officer, shall rank with respect to the Foreign Service Officers in the Consular District other than the senior officer as follows:

(1) Foreign Commerce Officers of Class I, with but after Foreign Service Officers of Classes I and II;

(2) Foreign Commerce Officers of Class II, with but after Foreign Service Officers of Classes III and IV;

(3) Foreign Commerce Officers of Class III, with but after Foreign Service Officers of Classes V, VI and VII;

(4) Foreign Commerce Officers of Class IV, with but after Foreign Service Officers of Classes VIII and IX, and unclassified Officers of the first grade;

(5) Foreign Commerce Officers of Class V, with but after unclassified Foreign Service Officers of the second and third grades.

(c) In the absence of the Foreign Service Officer in charge of a consular district, the Foreign Service Officer acting shall enjoy the precedence regularly accorded the former, and in the absence of the ranking Foreign Commerce Officer, the Officer acting shall enjoy the precedence of the ranking Foreign Commerce Officer.

5. In the districts to which they are assigned, Foreign Service officers in charge of Consulates General take place and precedence immediately after Brigadier Generals in the Army or Marine Corps, and hold rank intermediate between Rear Admirals and Captains in the Navy.

In the Districts to which they are assigned, Foreign Service officers in charge of Consulates take place and precedence immediately after Colonels in the Army or Marine Corps and Captains in the Navy.

THE WHITE HOUSE, August 10, 1927.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

ARGENTINA

PROPOSED TREATY OF FRIENDSHIP, COMMERCE AND CONSULAR RIGHTS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND ARGENTINA

611.3531/86

The Ambassador in Argentina (Bliss) to the Secretary of State1

No. 18

BUENOS AIRES, September 20, 1927. SIR: I have the honor to refer to the Department's instruction No. 68 of August 18, 1926,2 relative to a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights of which the central principle would be an unconditional most-favored-nation clause, which would replace the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation of 1853 originally entered into between the Government of the United States and the Argentine Confederation. The Department of State further informed the Embassy on June 21, 1927,2 of the attitude adopted by various South American countries towards this subject. The Embassy had made various oral requests of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs relative to the development of Argentine opinion upon the advisability of entering into negotiations for such a Treaty. The utter failure of the legal division of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to place the question upon its proper basis is set forth in Embassy's Despatch No. 351 of July 27, 1927.2

The Embassy is now in receipt of a note with an enclosed protocol from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs dated September 8, a copy and translation of which are transmitted herewith. The salient features appear: 1, the reference to the reported visit of American Commissioners to investigate the cost of production (of flaxseed and corn, is to be understood), and 2, the desire of the Argentine Government to sign a protocol allowing either party signatory to the Treaty of 1853 to denounce that Treaty at any time upon a notification of six months.

The appended protocol should be taken, I believe, as an indication that the Argentine Government is not at this moment desirous of entering into negotiations for a new Treaty containing an uncon

1Date of receipt not known.

'Not printed.

'William M. Malloy (ed.), Treaties, Conventions, etc., Between the United States of America and Other Powers, 1776-1909 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1910), vol. 1, p. 20.

ditional most-favored-nation clause. Their expressed wish to place in the Treaty of 1853 an addition granting this right of denunciation might prove detrimental to the United States, should it be ratified, inasmuch as it would provide an avenue of attack to those nations which are in active commercial competition with the United States, by enabling foreign pressure to bring about an abrogation of the Treaty.

I have the honor to call the Départment's attention to the Embassy's despatch No. 372 of August 18, 1927, which transmitted a portion of the annual report of the Argentine Embassy at Washington, which contains pertinent facts concerning the attitude to be adopted at this time by Argentina regarding negotiations for a new Commercial Treaty with the United States.

I have [etc.]

[Enclosure-Translation]

ROBERT WOODS BLISS

The Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs (Gallardo) to the American Chargé (Cable)5

BUENOS AIRES, September 8, 1927. Mr. CHARGÉ D'AFFAIRES: As I had the pleasure of informing the Embassy under your worthy charge in my note of December 2 last, my Government has considered with the greatest care the American proposal of September 17 with reference to the negotiation of a new Treaty of Commerce between the United States and the Republic. The desire of the American Government to direct its commercial policy in accordance with modern principles is shared by the Argentine Government. Without doubt you know the statements which the commercial and industrial organizations of Argentina have made on separate occasions requesting a complete revision of our system of treaties, which according to these petitions should begin with the general denunciation of all the conventions now in force.

The legislature has supported these desires of the public and in obedience thereto has appointed a parliamentary commission whose duty it is to study the conventions now in force and to give advice with respect either to the approval or alteration of the principles upon which they are based. Although the commission has not at this date rendered a definite report, the Executive Power believes that, whatever may be its future decision, the moment has arrived to prepare the ground for the modifications which will certainly be

"Not printed.

'Note addressed to the Chargé. Ambassador Bliss, however, had arrived at his post and assumed charge on August 31.

suggested, and above all to create the diplomatic resources which would provide the means to readjust the treaties questioned by public opinion and fortunately rejected even from a theoretical standpoint, as inefficient and obsolete, by certain of the contracting States with whom we are bound by them, as for example in the present instance by the American Foreign Office, which offers the new formula referred to in the above mentioned note of September 17, 1926.

In view of the foregoing and with the desire to obviate unavoidable differences of interpretation which the new forms of international commerce and its official control might advance with respect to the enforcement of the Treaty of Commerce of 1853, 'as for instance, the opinion which I presented to the Embassy under your worthy charge in the Memorandum of July 19 last, with reference to the reported visit to the Republic of an American commission to investigate the cost of production, I have the pleasure to request you to enquire of your Government the views which it might entertain in regard to the signing of an additional protocol similar to the one which accompanies this note.

Please accept [etc.]

[Subenclosure-Translation]

ANGEL GALLARDO

Draft of a Proposed Additional Protocol

In order to complete the Treaty of Friendship Commerce and Navigation between the Argentine Federation and the United States of America, of July 26 [27], 1853, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Argentine Nation, Dr. Angel Gallardo, and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, being duly authorized by their respective Governments with ample and sufficient full powers which have been exchanged in due form on this occasion, have agreed to add to the said Treaty the following article:

"The present Treaty will continue indefinitely in force for the contracting powers as long as it is not denounced by the Government of either of them. This denunciation may be made at any time six months in advance of the date on which the Treaty shall cease to be effective.

"In witness to which the representatives sign the present additional article, at Buenos Aires, the .. day of of the year 1927,

and affix their respective seals."

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