L

SUMMARY OF CONSULAR BUSINESS.

sular business.

562. Consular Officers at seaports will also make to the Summary of Con Department of State and to the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury a quarterly report in Form No. 103, containing a summary of the business of their offices. This report embraces the movement of vessels and seamen, the tonnage arriving and departing, the amount of fees and wages received, and the disbursements on account of seamen.

563. Consuls will also in addition to the foregoing make quarterly returns to the Secretary of State of-1. A digest of the invoice-book (Form No. 117); 2. Arrivals and departures of American vessels (Form No. 120); 3. Returns of deceased American citizens (Form No. 121); 4. Record of notarial services (Form No. 159); 5. Return of Marshal of Consular court (Form No. 137); 6. Semi-annual returns to the same officer, showing an abstract of passports issued or visaed (Forms Nos. 122 and 132); 7. An annual return to the same officer, showing the names of the persons employed at the Consulate (Form No. 123). 8. An annual return of exports (Form 20). They will also make a semi-annual return of the persons receiving the protection of the Consulate (paragraph 148), and also an annual return of dispatches written to the Department of State during the year (paragraph 128); and a semi-annual report of the condition of the estates of deceased American citizens (paragraph 634), an annual return of marriages (paragraph 445), and a transcript of the register of American residents (paragraph 444).

564. RECAPITULATION.

TABLE NO. 1.-Returns and accounts to be transmitted by Con-
sular Officers to the Department of State.

Reports to Secretary of State.

Returns to Department of State,

Semi-annual.

Annual.

SEMI-ANNUAL RETURN.

Abstract of passports issued or visaed ......... Forms Nos. 122 and 132
List of persons to whom protection has been issued in
non-Christian countries (paragraph 137).............

Report on estates of deceased citizens (paragraph 634).......

Quarterly ac

QUARTERLY ACCOUNTS.

counts

Salary account of Consal General who is also Minister
Resident...............

Form No. 170

Contingent expenses, United States Consulates

Form No. 90

Expenses of Interpreters and Guards in Turkish Domin.
ions

Form No. 165

Form No. 165

Expenses of prisons for American convicts...

Fees and expenditures of Marshals to Consular Courts.. Form No. 137

To Fifth Auditor. TABLE NO. 2.- Returns and accounts to be transmitted by the Consular Officers to the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury.

QUARTERLY ACCOUNTS.

Relief and protection of American seamen, with vouch

ers.....

Form No. 94

Salaries, Consular Service, with vouchers......... Forms Nos. 106, 108,

Indorsement and

and accounts.

565. In rendering returns and accounts which, under the regulations (Paragraph 564, Table No. 2), are to be trans- folding of returns mitted directly to the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, Consular Officers are instructed that each quarterly return and account should be folded into folds as nearly three and a half inches wide as possible, and should be indorsed on the upper or first outside fold with Consulate, name, and title of officer, the quarter for which the document is rendered, and synopsis of the contents, a space of one inch being left blank at the top of the fold, thus:

LONDON, ENG.

E. A. MERRITT,

Consul-General.

September quarter, 1884.

Account-current for Salary and

Fees, Form 112.

The same form should be observed in rendering accounts for "contingent expenses," "clerk hire," and other expenses which are transmitted to this Department and sent to the Fifth Auditor.

Dispatches transmitting returns and accounts, or any letter addressed accounting officers, should also be indorsed on first fold with place, date, name, and title of writer, and number of inclosures, thus:

LONDON, ENG.

October 1, 1884.

E. A. MERRITT,

Consul-Genera!.

Transmitting returns and accounts
for the September quarter, 1884.

No. of inclosures...

One letter of transmission with accounts and returns is ordinarily sufficient when they are forwarded together to one address, but any explanation respecting relief of seamen, certified invoices, or matters other than that which relates to the fee and salary account, should form a separate dispatch and be properly indorsed. The titles of inclosures and the form numbers should be given at the foot of the dispatch, and how many of each form are inclosed. Communications on letter paper should be folded in three (3)

1

folds, and those on cap paper in four (4) folds. Note paper should never be used.

The above instructions, it must be distinctly understood, apply only to correspondence and accounts and returns to be transmitted to the Treasury Department. Dispatches covering accounts and returns for this Department must be prepared in accordance with instructions contained in paragraph 116.

ARTICLE XXVII.

Consular Reports.

566. Consular officers are expected to prepare, from time to time, reports upon matters of commercial, industrial, financial, and agricultural interest in their Consular districts. Among the subjects suitable for such reports may be mentioned:

Information regarding labor, including rates of wages, Subjects. hours of work, condition of work-people, trades-unions, strikes and lock-outs, systems of co-operation and profitsharing.

Information regarding manufactures, notices of inventions, of the development of new branches of industry, of the transfer of capital from one manufacture to another, of new appliances in agriculture.

Information on the movements of trade, the increasing or declining demand for certain kinds of goods, the variations in the prices of commodities in common use.

Information on legislation, changes in customs regulations, tariffs, quarantine, and in the laws relating to commerce and industry.

Information relating to finance, banking, currency, public loans, and taxation.

Information relating to modes of communication and transport, railroads, lines of steamboats, rates of freight, directions in which traffic is beginning to flow.

Information as to the administration of the law, decisions on important commercial questions, regulations relating to law charges, changes in commercial procedure.

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