The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-10-21
PRESIDENT AND DIPLOMATS.
Mr.. Roosevelt Inclined to Keep Them
Within International Usage.


President Roosevelt's advent to pow
er is regarded with a certain amount
of misgiving by the foreign diplomatic
corps at Washington, as there seems
to be a disposition to credit him with
the determination to curtaii number
of the prerogatives, social and other
wise, which the members of the various
foreign missions in the national capital
have usurped.
''Usurped' is the only word that can
be used in this connection. for the dip
lomats accredited to the United States
assume privileges which they would
not venture to adopt in any first-class
European capital. While it is perfect
ly true that according to the usage
among civilized nations and interna-
tiona1 law, they enjoy immunity from
the jurisdiction of the tribunals of the
country in which they are stationed,
and are likewise exempt from taxation,
yet il must be understood that they are
subject to the directions of the execu-
tive to whom they are accredited. In
mOnarchial countries, such as England
Germany. Austria and Russia. the for
elgn ENJOYS, their wives and the mem
berS of their staff, are regarded as
forming part and parcel of the court of
the sovereign in whose capital they
are stationed. They are subject to all
the regulations and rules of the court
in question, and likewise to any new
DEGREES that the monarch may see fit
to issue. Thus when King Edward or
derS court mourning for any foreign
ruler or for any one Of his relatives,
all the foreign diplomats stationed in
London are obliged to go into mourning
as well, no matter whether their own
sovereign is affected by King Edwards
bereavement or not; and it is King
Edward, too, who determines all ques-
tiOns of diplomatic precedence in his
empire. During the early part of the
reign of the late Queen Victoria not
merely ambassadors. but likewise mere
ministers plenipotentiary. put forward
claims to precedence over dukes. The
queen, however at once put her foot
down, and commanded that foreign
ministers plenipotentiary should yield
the pas" to British dukes on all Oc-
casioxS, and some time afterward,
when the foreign diplomats put for
wSSd pretensions with regard TO the
official status of daughters of 2mbaS-
sailors and ENJOYS, claiming for them
the prerogatives of ambassadors in
cases where they were either mother
less or else when temporarily occupy
ing the place of their mothers. her
majesty intimated that she would Ilot
permit anything of the kind.
President Roosevelt doubtless will
keep in mind that he is master in the
national capital, at any rate as far as
the foreign diplomats are concerned
that as president of this republic he
stands toward them in the same rela-
ton as any European monarch to
whose court they might be accredited,
and that they are subject to his con-
troll and direction in all questions Of
etiquette, precedence and social, as we'll
as official, intercourse.
Former presidents have, with a good
nature which doubtless verged on
weakness, allowed the foreign diplo-
mats at Washington TO do rretty much
as they pleased. to affect the airs of a
caste altogether apart and superior To
( the remainder of society in the nation
al capital. and to usurp all kinds of
extraordinary prerogatives. President
Roosevelt Will only be doing what Is
/ right and within his power if he sets
/ in order and exercises little whole
some discipline over that portion of his
| official circle which is known as the
| DIPLOMATIC corps.