It should be borne in mind that this classification has nothing whatever to do with the transaction of business. All diplomats have essentially the same duties to perform. It is merely a matter of precedence, which was considered much more important at the time of the Vienna congress than it is now. Indeed, there are good reasons for thinking that we have outgrown these distinctions and should straightway abandon them. This much, at least, is apparent to all—that the chief diplomatic officer at every legation ought to be an ambassador, thus making no invidious distinctions between countries.
As it is at present we send ambassadors to the most important countries, envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary to those that are next important to us, and so on. Thus there are five ambassadors; one each at London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Mexico respectively, thirty envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary, four ministers resident, and one who is classed as a chargé d’affaires.
There are secretaries of legation at twenty-three different capitals, who in the absence of their chief may become chargés d’affaires exercising all the functions of a diplomatic officer. At fourteen different capitals there are military or naval attachés, sometimes both, and an interpreter at six of them.
Legation, or embassy, formerly meant the particular business, the errand, so to speak, upon which the ambassador was sent.
These terms are now used more often to designate the officers themselves who are sent on an embassy, and finally by the extension of the term they also mean the official residence of those officers.
American legations as a rule have fewer members than those of other great nations and are much less expensive. The American diplomatic service costs only one fourth as much as the British. Whether or not the result is desirable upon the whole you may judge for yourselves; for while it must be said that we have as a rule been very well served diplomatically, yet on the other hand one direct result of our economy is that only men of wealth can afford to be ambassadors. The cost of living, and especially of entertaining, is so high and the salary is so inadequate that no man in ordinary circumstances can occupy a high diplomatic position where the social requirements are burdensome.
In several cases the parsimony of the Government has been quite contrary to its own best interests. In Central and South America, for instance, where we ought, by all means, to be well represented, the same officer is frequently accredited to two, or even three different countries. Now, no country likes to have a representative of an inferior grade accredited to it, certainly not when a mere change of title would mend the matter, but when it comes to being bunched together with another country or two by a powerful and wealthy neighbor it is almost insulting, and the countries in question show a justifiable resentment. In such countries we will find European nations well represented, and yet we wonder at our own loss of prestige.
PURPOSE.
As long as the nations have any dealings with each other as nations, so long will it be necessary for them to have representatives, honored and trusted by those who receive them as well as those who send them, at each other’s capitals. It might almost be said that they exist for the prevention of business—the business arising from misunderstandings—for their primary duty is, while representing their own nation with dignity and reserve, to cultivate friendly relations with the power to which they are accredited, as far as circumstances will allow. To do this they interpret the public acts of their own government as it wishes to be understood, and are frequently entrusted with large discretionary powers for this purpose. Moreover, they expedite business and help to avoid annoyances in a very large measure. The government at Washington, for instance, wishes to know the attitude of the government at Berlin upon a certain matter without making it too formal or exaggerating its importance, and accordingly application is made at once either to the German ambassador residing at Washington or to the American ambassador in Berlin, either of whom, if it lies within his discretion, gives the desired information. If the whole thing is quietly done, so as to escape general notice, it saves needless wild guessing as to what it all means; and this is greatly to be desired when things are in an acute stage, if not at other times. The recent triumph of the “open door” policy in China was accomplished in this quiet, effective way.