No. 706.
Mr. Cramer
to Mr. Blaine.
Berne, October 18, 1881. (Received November 1.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that yesterday afternoon, the 17th instant, I called on the President of the Swiss Confederation for the purpose of taking leave of him previous to my departure for the United States en congé. During the course of our conversation he observed that he would cause a bill to be introduced into the Federal Legislature looking towards the establishment of a diplomatic mission at Washington, its chief having the rank of an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, with a salary of forty thousand francs, or about eight thousand dollars. He also observed that the Swiss Government had in no country either a chargé d’affaires or a minister resident, but only envoys. I noticed from the entire tone of our conversation that the Swiss Government would be highly pleased to see this legation raised to the rank of an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary 5 the more so, since no foreign power, great or small, has a mission here of a lower grade than that of an envoy, &c. Even the King of Belgium recently raised his mission here from a minister resident to that of the next higher grade.
As you will have noticed from the dispatches of my predecessor on this subject, it is exceedingly unpleasant for the diplomatic representative of the United States, who is only a chargé d’affaires, to be always placed at the foot of the diplomatic corps on occasions of ceremony and official and social entertainments. The giving precedence to the diplomatic representatives of such small countries as Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden-Norway, by virtue of their higher rank over the diplomatic representative of such a great power as the United States, creates unpleasant remarks, if not unpleasant feelings, and has a tendency to lower our country in the estimation of the official and unofficial world.
I therefore take the liberty to join my predecessor in the request to lay before Congress the propriety, if not necessity, of raising this and other similar legations of the United States to the rank of an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, with a salary attached to it adequate to the reasonable demands made upon the hospitality, &c., of such an official.
In this connection I would also request that in case no secretary of legation [Page 1172] will be appointed, an appropriation be made for clerk hire of about four hundred dollars. The demands upon the time of the chief of the mission, both by his own countrymen and by official society, are such as to absolutely necessitate the presence and assistance of a clerk. It cannot be expected that the chief of the legation should pay the expenses of clerk hire out of his own meager salary.
Recommending the foregoing to your favorable consideration,
I am, &c.,