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The Relations Between the Navy and the Foreign Service

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2017

Clark H. Woodward*
Affiliation:
U.S.N.

Extract

In the conduct of foreign policy and the participation of the United States in international affairs, the relation between the Navy and the Foreign Service is of vital importance, but often misunderstood. The relationship encompasses the very wide range of coördination and coöperation which should and must exist between the two interdependent government agencies in peace, during times of national emergency, and, finally, when the country is engaged in actual warfare. The relationship involves, as well, the larger problem of national defense, and this cannot be ignored if the United States is to maintain its proper position in world affairs.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The American Society of International Law 1939

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References

1 Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the Fiscal Year 1937 (Washington, 1937), p. 7.

2 Hearings before the Committee on Naval Affairs, House of Representatives, 75th Cong., 3rd Sess., on H. R. 9218, p. 1940.

3 Ibid., p. 1955.

4 Ibid., p. 1963.

5 Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1912.

6 Published by the Department since 1932 in its Conference Series.

7 United States Navy Regulations (Washington, 1932).

8 Sec. 724 (2) requires commanding officers to communicate with the Navy Department in Washington before taking forceful action, except in “extreme cases where such action is necessary to save life.” Sec. 726 adds the duty of protecting all merchant vessels of the United States engaged in lawful occupations, as well as advancing the commercial interests of the country.

9 Consular Regulations of the United States (Washington, 1930).

* The Regulations contain a footnote quoted from John W. Foster’s Practice of Diplomacy, to the effect that “The American minister in foreign countries is sometimes called upon to act in concert with a commander of our naval forces. While in cases of emergency or threatened danger to American interests the naval officer is instructed to put himself in communication with the diplomatic representative of the country, he does not thereby come under his orders. ...”

10 Secs. 148 and 149 of the Consular Regulations, and Chapter XI, Sec. 1, of the Diplomatic Instructions detail the functions of foreign service officers in their duties toward American citizens.

11 Secs. 243-247, 351-353. See also General Order No. 23, of the Navy Department, issued May 13, 1935, entitled “Rules of Precedence, Officers of the United States.”

12 Sees. 109-112.

13 Chap. IV, Sees. 5-7.

14 Sec. 720.