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

eign Affairs informed the British House
OF commons that Consuls were mot gen.
EtIemen," yet it may be questioned whether
either the official or social status of those
most estimable and most useful function
aries has been improved TO any extent
since that date. They are still treated as
the sort of iilegitimate brethren of the
mem bers OF the regular diplomatic service,
are despised as such by the very youngest
OF attaches, and are usually referred to as
those id Consuls." In some mon
archical countries their very office is suffi-
cient to debar them from presentation at
court. it being held that the acceptance of
consulship is equivalent to a confession
by man that he is not hoffaehig Chat is
10 say, not sufficient OF a gentleman to
consort with princes and nobles), while it
is rare to find Consul dining at the table
even OF his own ambassador or Envoy,
particular condescension.
1t Is not the consular service of any par
ticular country that have in mind IN
wr1tlng thus. but the consular corps as o
whole. 1t is profession which during
the last fifty years or SO has grown to such
degree OF importance to the welfare and
prosperity of the nations to which it owes
obedience that it has frequently been
argued OF late that it might be of political
as well as economic advantage to abolish
the diplomatic missions and to devote the
money thus saved to the development and
extension OF the consular service. The
usefulness of ambassadors, of their secre-
taries and of their attaches, except for
ornamental purposes, is open to discus
sion, whereas there can be none as to the
value of the Consuls, providing of course
they do their duty. For ConsuIs are in
dispensable factors in the intercourse be-
tween alfcountries that are in commercial
relations with one another. The great
ness. the prosperity, the power and the
welfare of nations depend not so much
upon the area of their territory or on the
number OF cruisers and soldiers as upon
the extent of their trade and industry.
By none can these be more developed
and fosteled than by their Consuls, and it
may be pointed out that precisely those
ambassadors have been regarded as the
most capable aud successful who, tres
passing, so to speak, upon the consular
sphere, have endeavored to secure facili-
ties and advantages for the commerce of
their native land. Thus an Envoy who in
duces the Government to which he is ac-
credited to abolish restrictions imposed
upon the importation of the produce
of his country unquestionably renders
a more valuable service to the latter than the
ambassador who, for instance, presents elo-
quently worded notes to the Sultan urging the
Introduction of reforms in the internal ad-
mln1stration OF Turkey-notes which are never
acted upon and which are merely filed away
among the archives of the Sublime Porte.
When Lord Palmerston made his sweeping
assertion TO the effect that Consuls were mot
gentlemen" he did not of course, mean to i'm
ply that there were no gentlemen among Con-
suls, for there are many men of birth and
breeding among them. But what he evidently
did mean to say was that it was not indispen-
sable that a Consul should be a gentleman, as
is the case with officer of the army and
the navy, with q member of the bar or of the
diplomatic service. Moreover, it cannot be
denied that so little care is taken in making
the appointments to the consular service that
ii has become endowed so lar as social status
is concerned, with an exceedingly bad name.
Probably the best organized and most efficient
consular service in the world at the present
moment is that of Germany. Yet even there
the nobiliary and "gentilhomme" is conspic-
uous by the paucity of its numbers, the vast
majority OF the members OF the corps being
unlike the diplomatic profession, of bourgeois
birth and recruited from the middle classes
Certain of the latest OF the offices of Consul
General are held by important functionaries
and titled digEitaries OF the Foreign Office at
Berlin, whom 1t is desired to give spell of
service abroad for the sake of broadening their
minds.
But the ordinary consulships are filled by
men who bear names that are plebeian and
unknown, save in commercial circles, the few
arstocrats among the number being ex-offi-
GERS of the army, who, having run through
their money to such an extent as to render
the retention of their commission impossible
have made use of what influence they DOS.
sessed to secure Government employment
and above all a livelihood abroad. Yet, no
matter how the German consular service ia
composed, 1t is singularly efficient, and is kept
with its nose to the Grindstone by the constant
demands that are being made upon it from
Berlin. Its officials are expected to have
their eyes open and to be on the watch for
every new opportunity of pushing German
trade. They are required to keep the mer.
chants and manufacturers at home fully
posted as TO the changes in the economic con-
dition of the country and districts in which
they are stationed, and wherever prac ticable
to induce local traders aud man ufacturers to
open up communications with the German
markets. They advise their countrymen as to
secure contracts for them whenever possible
and furnish them with all the points that they
can need.
In one word, they constitute themselves the
mentors, the guides and the friends of the Ger
man trader and OF the German producer
that, too, in q thoroughly disnterested man.
ner, without looking for any other reward
than either promotion or, perhaps decora-
ton from the Emperor. 1t is thanks to them
that German trade has developed to such an
extent that it has now become the principal
competitor of that of Great Britain all the
world over, ousting the English from many of
their best markets. Indeed, German trade
would probably be victorious all along the
line were the quality of the produce and man.
ufacture offered equal to that of the British
article or more worthy of the exertion made
in its behalf by the hard-working, energetic
Teuton Consuls.
The English consular service presents a good
deal OF analogy to that of the United States
with this difference: that, whereas American
Consuls hold their office merely for a term of
four years and are then sent about their bust
ness just when they have had time to get &C.
quainted with their duties, their English col
league retains his position until he is retired
on pension on the ground of old age or in
trinity. But the method of selection is much
the same in both instances Men are pitch
forked into the service without any regard to
their fitness.
Here consulships are regarded by the Gov
eminent as means for the payment of petty