CHAPTER VII THE MECHANISM OF INTERNATIONAL INTERCOURSE 1. HOME DEPARTMENTS OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS The official intercourse between states is carried on through a specially designated bureau or department in each government, charged with the duty of transacting matters relating to its foreign affairs. In the United States government this office is called the Department of State; in Great Britain it is called the Foreign Office. In the United States the Secretary of State is the person by whom, in the name of the President, the official acts relating to foreign affairs are done. In addition to maintaining its home office, each nation also sends to other nations certain designated officials, called diplomatic representatives and consular officers, to represent it and its interests there. Special commissioners may also be sent, for a specified purpose. In 1924 the diplomatic service and the consular service of the United States, until then separate, were united in what is now termed the Foreign Service. As the Secretary of State is the person through whose hands negotiations about foreign affairs passed, he is the chief over all diplomatic and consular officers and other agents in international relations. It is with him that the diplomatic repre sentatives of other countries stationed in the United States take up matters concerning their countries and the United States, and it is his agents, stationed abroad, who take up with the governments of the countries in which they are stationed matters to which the United States government wishes to call their attention. 2. DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVES (a) The Right of Legation No state is obliged to send representatives to another. It is, however, necessary not only as a matter of comity, but also for commercial reasons. The right to exchange representatives with other civilized nations is called the right of legation. (b) Grades of Representatives The representatives of a nation are classified as follows: (1) Ambassadors, who are the personal representatives of their sovereign, and also represent their state as a whole in its international relations; (2) Ministers plenipotentiary, and envoys extraordinary; (3) Ministers resident; and (4) Chargés d'affaires. The first three are accredited to the sovereign or ruler, and the fourth is accredited to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The duties of a diplomatic representative are sometimes said to consist of negotiation, observation and protection; as has been said above, an ambassador carries out whatever negotiations may come up between his government and that of the country in which he is stationed; he observes and reports on all aspects of the life and government of the country he in is which it is important for his own country to know; and he also has the duty to protect the persons, property and interests of nationals of his own state that may be within the country to which he is sent. (c) Whether Persona Grata No nation is obliged to receive any person sent by another nation if it has any reason to object to him. It has become customary with most nations now to ascertain before making an appointment whether or not the person they have in mind would be acceptable to the other country. If they find that he is persona non grata some other person is chosen. (d) Recall or Dismissal If a nation has any reason to object to the conduct of any representative of another country, it may ask that he be recalled, or, in an extreme case, it may dismiss him. The earliest case of dissatisfaction with the representative of another power that arose in the United States was with the French minister, Genêt, who soon after coming to this country issued authorizations to officers to make war upon the subjects of powers with which France was then at war but with which the United States was at peace; when requested to desist he attacked the government and the officials of the United States in a way which made it necessary to ask that he be recalled. Cases that occurred during the World War were the request for the recall of the AustroHungarian Ambassador Dumba, in September, 1915, on the ground of his admitted purpose and intent to cripple legitimate industries of the people of the United States and interrupt their legitimate trade (i. e., by his advertisement warning Austro-Hungarian subjects in the United States not to work in certain industries) and because of his flagrant violation of diplomatic propriety in using an American citizen with an American passport as a secret bearer of official dispatches through the enemy lines. About three months later the Department of State informed the German government that the continued presence of Captain Boy-Ed, the naval attache, and Captain von Papen, the military attache, was no longer desired. THE POSITION OF DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVES By one of the oldest usages of international custom, the representatives of one state sent to another are regarded as possessing a particularly sacred character, which entitles them to special protection and to special privileges. As they represent the person of a sovereign, or the sov ereignty and dignity of a people, they are considered exempt from the usual jurisdiction of the state, since one state cannot assert jurisdiction over another. Moreover, in order to carry out the duties for which they are sent to foreign lands, they have to be free from local interference. A legal fiction was devised to explain why the nation's laws do not apply to the embassy; this is called extraterritoriality-i. e., the official residence of the ambassador is said to be outside (extra) the territory of the state to which he is sent. In recent years, however, the usual reasons given for diplomatic immunity are the envoy's need of full freedom in carrying out his duties, and the equality and sovereignty of nations. A diplomatic representative has the privilege of personal inviolability; many states have enacted laws providing severe punishments for an attack or attempted attack upon him. The law of the United States (Rev. Stat. Section 4062) provides a heavy penalty for any person who "offers violence to the person of a public minister, in violation of the law of nations." Such a representative is also immune from the criminal jurisdiction of the state, and cannot be prosecuted for offenses against law and order. This does not mean, however, that a state would be obliged to tolerate the continued presence of a diplomatic representative who flouted its laws; the representative is supposed to respect them, and if a situation were to arise where the representative |