123 So 8/155b
The Secretary of State to the Appointed Minister Resident and Consul General in Ethiopia ( Southard )
Sir: The President having appointed you “to act as” Minister Resident and Consul General of the United States to Ethiopia, I enclose your commission.12
I enclose also a letter of credence, with office copy, addressed to the Prince Regent, together with an identical letter and office copy addressed to the Empress,12 it not being clear to the Department to which of these Imperial persons your letter should be presented. You will, of course, be able to resolve this question following your arrival at Addis Ababa, and you will, naturally, present only one of the two letters.
You will note that the opening sentence of your letter of credence reads, in part, to the effect that the President has chosen you to reside [Page 596] near the Government of Ethiopia, “in the quality of” Minister Resident and Consul General of the United States. The difference in wording thus appearing in your commission and letter of credence is rendered desirable by the phraseology of Section 17 of the Act of May 24, 1924, which reads as follows:
“That within the discretion of the President, any Foreign Service officer may be appointed to act as commissioner, chargé d’affaires, minister resident, or diplomatic agent for such period as the public interests may require without loss of grade, class, or salary: Provided, however, That no such officer shall receive more than one salary.”
It is held by the Department that, in accordance with the provisions of this section, you must, when performing the duties of your new position, be technically considered to be only acting as Minister Resident and Consul General. It is not, however, the Department’s intention that you should sign yourself as “Acting Minister Resident and Consul General” except when submitting your official accounts; nor is it the Department’s intention so to address you. For all practical purposes, therefore, with the one exception already noted, you may consider yourself and you should sign all official correspondence as “Minister Resident and Consul General.”
As you are doubtless aware, American interests in Ethiopia have since 1914 been formally under the protection of a British Legation at Addis Ababa. It would seem, therefore, that, on your arrival at your post, unless the informal reception accorded you by the Ethiopian Government would indicate the desirability of a contrary procedure, you should seek, through the intermediacy of the British Minister, an informal conference with the Foreign Secretary of the Ethiopian Government, and that you should, at the same time, in accordance with the general practice in such matters, address to the Foreign Secretary, in your own name, a formal note communicating the fact of your appointment and requesting the designation of a time and place for presenting your letter of credence. With such a note you would, of course, transmit the open office copy of your letter of credence. In any event, in view of the courtesy extended to this Government by the British Government in permitting its representative in Ethiopia to undertake during the past twelve years the protection of American interests in that country, it is desired that you consult with the British Minister regarding the procedure which you should follow in this matter. In this connection it will be of interest to you to know that on October 18, last, following the issuance of your commission, Assistant Secretary Castle informed Mr. Chilton of the British Embassy in Washington of this Government’s decision to reestablish its mission at Addis Ababa, explained that your agrément would be requested through the American Consulate [Page 597] at Aden, and expressed this Government’s cordial appreciation of the courtesy shown by the British Government in permitting its representatives in Ethiopia to take charge of and protect American interests. It is desired that you refer to this matter in an early conversation with the British Minister following your arrival at Addis Ababa reiterating in appropriate form your Government’s expression of appreciation.
On the occasion of presenting the original of your letter of credence you should, provided you find it the custom to do so, make a brief address pertinent to the occasion. This address should be written and spoken in English. Before the day fixed for your audience you should furnish the Foreign Secretary a copy of your proposed remarks in order that a suitable reply thereto may be prepared. A copy of the address and of the reply should be sent to the Department.
Your salary will, of course, be that to which you are entitled as a Foreign Service officer of the class to which you are or may be appointed. In this connection it will be of interest to you to know that, on the recommendation of the Secretary of State, based on the reports submitted to the Department by Consul General Totten on the occasion of his visit to Addis Ababa during the months of April and May 1926, the President proposed to the last Congress the appropriation of $10,000 for the salary of a Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to Ethiopia; that, on the basis of subsequent hearings before the House Appropriations Committee the item in question was not included in the Department’s appropriations for the current fiscal year; but that, with the informally expressed concurrence of certain members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the Department recommended to the President, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of May 24, 1924, above quoted, the appointment of a Foreign Service officer to act as Minister Resident and Consul General; and that the President concurring in such recommendation, your appointment was proposed by the Secretary and your commission signed by the President. For your further information in this connection, there are enclosed copies of Mr. Totten’s reports of April 2213 and May 22, 1926, together with copies of pertinent extracts from the Department’s Monthly Political Reports for February and September 1926 and August and October 1927.13
On reaching Addis Ababa you should forward to the Department an account for transportation and subsistence expenses chargeable against the Government as defined and limited by the “Government Travel Regulations,” a copy of which is also enclosed.13
[Page 598]En route to your post, however, you should stop at Aden for a sufficient period of time to familiarize yourself with the correspondence exchanged by the Consulate at that place with the Department and with various persons in Ethiopia, including His Highness The Prince Regent and the British Minister, which has to do with American-Ethiopian relations.
While at Aden you should also take over from the Vice Consul in charge at that post the records, archives and supplies of the mission formerly maintained by the American Government at Addis Ababa which are now held by that officer. You will find the items in question listed on the current “Inventory of United States Government Property” of the Aden Consulate. However, should you decide after examination that any of these items are unnecessary to the proper conduct of your office at Addis Ababa, you may in your discretion leave them with the Vice Consul at Aden and report to the Department in due course your action in the premises together with your recommendation as to their eventual disposal.
Your long experience in the Foreign Service makes it unnecessary to give you any general routine instructions. Specific instructions will, of course, be sent you from time to time as required. A special word of caution, however, may not be inappropriate at this time.
In reaching the decision to recommend to the President the reestablishment of American representation at Addis Ababa, the Department was influenced in part by reports which led it to believe that Ethiopia offers today in a more readily accessible manner than ever before a potential field of considerable interest to American commerce and for the investment of American capital, in part by a desire to make possible the obtaining of first hand information from a reliable source regarding the political situation in that country particularly as it is affected by the policies of the principal European powers having special interests therein. In these two fields, the promotion of American interests and political reporting, the Department is confident that your mission will prove of real value. It desires, however, to caution you against too closely identifying yourself with any particular American interest which may call upon your good offices or too strongly supporting its cause with the Ethiopian Government. Caution is likewise urged against too strongly recommending to American interests the opportunities for the investment of capital in Ethiopian enterprises.
The Department has reason to believe that the Prince Regent, whose program of progress and reform has the cordial good-will of this Government, may endeavor to a not inconsiderable degree to enlist your support and assistance in these matters. It is possible also that he may approach you in the matter of obtaining American [Page 599] fiscal and technical advisors to the Ethiopian Government. Should such prove to be the case, it is desired that you consult fully with the Department. With respect to the question of American advisors, it is pertinent to add that, in the light of the Department’s recent and in some respects unsatisfactory experience in connection with the American Financial Mission to Persia,14 you are expected to exercise more than ordinary care and circumspection.
The Lake Tsana dam project,15 mentioned in the Monthly Political Report for October 1927,16 is a further case in point. While the Department would wish you to further the realization of this project by communicating, through it, to the interested American corporation (J. G. White and Company of New York City) all pertinent information which may come to your attention at Addis Ababa, you should carefully bear in mind that the construction of the Lake Tsana dam has political implications in which this Government does not desire to become involved.
The foregoing is intended to be suggestive only of the Department’s attitude towards your mission, an attitude with which it is believed you are already familiar but which it was desired to emphasize at this time. I am confident that the affairs of the Legation and Consulate General will prosper at your hands and that the ties of friendship which now unite the Government of Ethiopia with that of the United States will be strengthened in no small measure during your incumbency of office.
I am [etc.]