Executive Order 8356—Rules of Precedence Relating to Foreign Service Officers and Other Officers of the United States Government

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 1752 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (22 U.S.C., sec. 132), and as President of the United States of America, I hereby prescribe the following rules governing precedence as between officers of the Foreign Service of the United States and officers or accredited representatives of other Executive departments or establishments of the United States Government:

1. In the country to which he is accredited, the chief of the diplomatic mission shall take precedence over all officers or accredited representatives of other Executive departments or establishments.

2. In the absence of the titular head of the mission, the charge d'affaires ad interim shall take precedence over all officers or accredited representatives of other Executive departments or establishments.

3. Counselors shall take place and precedence next in succession after the chief of mission.

4. Military and naval attaches shall take place and precedence next in succession after the counselor of embassy or legation, or at a post where the Department of State has deemed it unnecessary to assign a counselor, after the senior secretary. Military and naval attaches shall take precedence among themselves according to their respective grades and seniority therein.

5. Foreign Service officers designated as attaches shall take precedence among Federal Service officers according to their respective grades and seniority therein, or as the Secretary of State may direct; but they shall take place and precedence with but after military and naval attach*ses, except when the provisions of section 12 hereof are applicable and such Foreign Service officers are also assigned as diplomatic secretaries.

6. Treasury attaches shall take place and precedence with but after military, naval, commercial, and agricultural attaches.

7. Assistant military and naval attaches shall take place and precedence next after second secretaries. Assistant military and naval attaches shall take precedence among themselves according to their respective grades and seniority therein.

8. Foreign Service officers designated as assistant attaches shall take precedence among Foreign Service officers according to their respective grades and seniority therein, or as the Secretary of State may direct; but they shall take place and precedence with but after assistant military and naval attaches, except when the provisions of section 12 hereof are applicable and such Foreign Service officers are also assigned as diplomatic secretaries.

9. Assistant treasury attaches shall take place and precedence with but after assistant military, naval, commercial, and agricultural attaches.

10. No extra rank or precedence shall be conferred upon a military, naval, marine, or Foreign Service officer because of his duties as attache to a diplomatic mission.

11. At ceremonies and receptions where the members of the mission take individual position, and in the lists furnished foreign governments for inclusion in their diplomatic lists, place and precedence shall follow the ranking indicated in the preceding sections.

12. At ceremonies and receptions where the personnel of diplomatic missions are present as a body, the chief of mission, or charge d'affaires ad interim, accompanied by all Foreign Service officers assigned as diplomatic secretaries, shall be followed in the order named by the military, the naval, the commercial (when not also assigned as diplomatic secretaries), the agricultural (when not also assigned as diplomatic secretaries), and the treasury attaches, formed as distinct groups.

13. In international conferences at which the American delegates possess plenipotentiary powers, the senior counselor of embassy or legation attached to the delegation shall take place and precedence immediately after the delegates, unless otherwise instructed by the Secretary of State.

14. In the districts to which they are assigned, consuls general shall take place and precedence with but after Brigadier Generals in the Army or Marine Corps and intermediate between Rear Admirals and Captains in the Navy; consuls shall take place and precedence with but after Colonels in the Army or Marine Corps and Captains in the Navy; Foreign Service officers commissioned as vice consuls shall take place and precedence with but after Captains in the Army or Marine Corps and Lieutenants in the Navy.

15. Medical officers of the Public Health Service assigned to duty in American consular offices shall rank relatively with but after career officers of the consular branch of the Foreign Service of the Department of State in their respective grades as follows: Medical director with consul general; senior surgeon and surgeon with consul; passed assistant and assistant surgeon with Foreign Service officers commissioned as vice consul: Provided, That this regulation shall not operate to give seniority to any medical officer above that of the consular officer in charge.

REVOCATION OF EXECUTIVE ORDER

Executive Order No. 4705 of August 10, 1927, prescribing rules of precedence relating to officers of the Foreign Service and other officers of the United States Government, is hereby revoked.

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

The White House,
March 2, 1940.