File No. 4199/9.
Chargé Buckler to the Secretary of State.
Madrid, October 18, 1907.
Sir: I have the honor, respectively, to ask instructions from the department as to whether I may wear here, on full-dress occasions, the “plaque” of the Order of Carlos III, which the Spanish Government conferred on me last year while secretary of the American special embassy.
[Page 1017]Although this order was bestowed on me—as was the Grand Cross thereof on the special ambassador, Mr. Whitridge—upon the occasion of the King’s marriage (May 31, 1906), yet the diploma actually conferring the order was not signed till more than a month later (i. e., in July, 1906), when I was no longer in the service of the United States, but was a mere private citizen.
The question I desire to ask is, whether a person like myself, not in the diplomatic service at the time when such a decoration is conferred, may wear it without special leave from Congress, after he has entered the diplomatic service.
If the department is of opinion that I must obtain the leave of Congress before wearing this decoration, then I respectfully request that application for such leave may be made in the usual manner to Congress on my behalf. I understand that such applications are sent in by the department, are acted on by Congress, if at all, once a year in a single batch.
I regret to trouble the department about such a matter, but having received this decoration, I am informed that international courtesy requires me either to wear it or else to explain that I have applied for and am only awaiting permission to do so.
I have, etc.,