The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-04-18
THE CONSULAR CORPS.

appointment to consuIships is conducted by
Great Britain in identically the same happy
go-iucky way as in this country, without the
slightest regard to their fitness for the i'm
portant duties which they ought to fulfill.
indeed, one would almost be tempted to i'm
agine that neither the English nor the United
states Government cared anything for the
trade and industry OF their respective coun-
tries. Thus. the British Foreign Office, in
stead OF selecting men who have some mer-
camille knowledge for the consulships in Rus
STA, invariably selects military officers, whose
DUTY, III the eyes OF their Government, con-
sists not in promoting trade or in opening up
new markets to British manufactures but in
securing military Information regarding the
ornaments and defenses OF the Muscoyite
empire, and which are destined to supplement
the data supplied to the War Department in
London by the military attache of the en-
bassy at st. Petersburg. Yet Russia especialiy
since the commencement of the present reign,
has become magnificent and as yet relatively
undeyeloped field for foreign manufactures
and industrial enterprises OF every kind.
Useless as are Consuls of this species to the
mercantile interests of Great Britain, they
are in every respect superior TO the class of
men that England employs for her consular
service of the Levant These are not even
native.born Englishmen; and, for instance,
Alfred Biliotti, the Consul in Crete to whom
no small blame for the present condition of
affairs in the island may be ascribed, is OF
Oriental parentage, was born at Makri, in
Asia Minor, and has spent his entire existence
in the East, seldom coming to England, save
on a short visit Biliotti is in every sense of
the word q Levantine, and possessed OF all
the detects and shortcomings of that monde
script race. At one time every consular post
on the line of communication between Malta
and Trebizond, extending therefrom again
through ErZeroom to Tabreez and Teheran
was held by Levantines, most of them re-
lated to one another, and who had COM
menced their career as upper servants, in
terpreters and consular clerks. Thus, not
outstanding the present crisis in Crete, the
English consulate on the island does not com
prise single native born Englishman in the
whole personnel. AS stated above, the Consul
himself is a Levantine, the Vice-C Consul is q
Spanish Jew and the remainder of the staff Is
composed of a perfect mosaic of nationalities.
People such as these have neither the notions
nor the principles of an English citizen.
They look upon affairs in an altogether differ
ent light, and, having hosts OF relatives who
owe allegiance to other Governments than
that of England. they are naturally often
influenced by personal considerations TO pur-
sue line of conduct that is distinctly disad-
vantageous to the political and commercial
interests of Great Britain.
Columns OF the most extraordinary stories
could be written about these Levantine Consuls
of England and OF other Christian powers, the
Consul General at Alexandria of one of the
South European Governments for instance
being Syrian Hebrew usurer who having
realized an immense fortune by loaning money
at large interest to the unfortunate Egyptian
peasantry, has now purchased title OF count
for himself at Rome. They do not even come
from the better class of merchants of the
Levant, but are recruited chiefly from those i'll
defined individuals, half m enial, half interpre-
ter. who go by the name OF dragomans Every
European in the Orient has his dragoman,
who acts as a sort of general factotum, carries
messages, manages the servants, makes the
purchases, and in fact takes ali the trouble off
ones hands. Yet, of course, no one would ever
dream OF having one of these dragomans sit
down to the table with him. English diplomats
and native born British Consuls have their
dragomans like the rest, and generally very
clever ones. Indeed, the dragomans render
themselves so indis pensable that their en-
ployers generally end by rewarding them It'll
a clerkship in the consulate. In course of time
this clerkship develops into an acting vice
consulship, then into permanent one and
finally it eliminates in full consulship. That
has been the career of Raphael Borg, the Brit
ish Consul at Cairo; of Biliotti, the British
Consul in Crete. and of dozens of others of the
same stripe.
Here in the United States England is for the
nonce, If not efficiently, always respectfully
represented as far as her consular officers are
concerned, although some of them are shaky
about their aspirates, while few years ago a
man was appointed to look after the commercial
interests OF Great Britain in a Southern State
mainly because, having failed in business at
home and having been refused discharge by
the bankruptcy court, it was considered advis-
able to get him out of the country. Another
consulate Is held to the present day by a ga liant
gentleman whose fortunes in England previous
10 his appointment had iallen to so low an ebb
that he had been compelled to accept the hum
bic position of warder in penitentiary TO keep
himself and mis- wife from starving. That, how
ever, the English Consuls in America fulfill
their duties better than the majority of their
colleagues elsewhere is shown to certain ex-
tent by the fact that although most of the Brit
ish missions of the Old World are now being
furnished with commercial attaches for the
purpose of making reports of some practical
use concerning the industry ana commerce of
the country in which they are stationed
nothing has yet been heard about endowing
Sir Julian Pauncefote's embassy at Washing
ton with any such official.
1t has frequently been urged in England th at
The various Chambers of Commerce should
ton of its consular representatives, and the
same recommendation might be suggested in
the case of the United States. For it is the
man ufact urers and merchants who are more
particularly interested than any others in the
choice OF q capable and efficient man. By so
doing the President would place the mercan-
tile community under obligations to his ad-
ministration. And when such a man has been
found and appointed he ought to be permitted
to hold his Office as long as he fulfilis his
to feel that his removal will only come to him
1t takes some little time to learn the mere
routine of a Consu!s office, and still longer to
become acquainted with the economic pecu-
liarities and the industrial as well as CONNER
cial problems of the districts in which he is
stationed
Some conscientious United States Consuls 60
knowledge, and have then to make way for
when they have at last succeeded in mastering
the details, and when they were beginning
to be really useful to the country. Others do
SO much trouble, knowing full well that as
soon as the administration to which they owe
their appointment goes out OF Office they will
have to vacate their consulshfp The result is
that there is no inducement and no encour.
agement to DO anything else but ones bare
duty in the most perfunctory manner-in fact
as little as one possibly can. American con-
sulships indeed are looked upon by their
holders to great extent as mere means of
passing few years abroad at the expense of
A. Co. mt ov.1