CHAPTER VIII.

 

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

 

ARTICLE IX—THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, HIS POWERS AND DUTIES IN GENERAL. *

 

* The offices of Secretary of War and the Navy, abolished 1874, Ch.XXXIX.

 

§436.  There shall be an executive department styled the Department of Foreign Affairs, which shall be presided over by an officer called the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who shall reside and keep an office at the seat of Government.

 

§437.  It shall be the duty of said Minister to conduct the correspondence of this Government, with the diplomatic and consular agents of all foreign nations, accredited to this Government, and with the public ministers, consuls, and other agents of the Hawaiian Islands, in foreign countries, in conformity with the law of nations, and as the King shall, from time to time, order and instruct.

 

§438.  It shall be the duty of said minister, before transmitting any diplomatic dispatch, making any claim or complaint on behalf of, or in answer to, any claim or complaint made against the authorities of the government of His Majesty, or before transmitting any other important dispatch, involving national responsibility, to submit the same to the King for adoption or amendment, to the end that His Majesty may not become liable for any official act, of which he shall not have had previous knowledge.

 

§439.  The Minister of Foreign Affairs shall keep a full and faithful record of all the transactions of his department, and preserve in some form convenient for reference, all his official correspondence, which shall be, at all times, accessible to the King.

 

§440.  Said minister may, from time to time, publish such portions of his correspondence, as the King may authorize or direct to be published.

 

§441.  Said minister shall have the custody of all public treaties concluded and ratified by the Government; and it shall be his duty to promulgate the same by publication in the government newspaper.  When so promulgated, all officers of this government shall be presumed to have knowledge of the same.

 

§442.  It shall be the duty of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to instruct the ministers, consuls, and other foreign agents of this government, in relation to their duties and conduct, in such manner as the King may, from time to time, direct.

 

§443.  Said minister shall also prescribe the fees and perquisites to be received by the consuls, and other foreign agents of this government.

 

§444.  The compensation of the foreign agents of this government shall be such as may, from time to time, be determined by the King: provided, always, that no money shall be applied to this purpose, except as the same may be appropriated by the Legislature.

 

§445.  Every minister, commissioner, consul, or vice-consul,* of the Hawaiian Islands, in any foreign country, may take and certify, under his official seal, all acknowledgements of any deed, mortgage, lease, release, or other instrument affecting the conveyance of real or personal estate in this Kingdom—and such acknowledgement shall entitle such instrument to be recorded.

 

* Consular certificates required on foreign invoices, 1864, p.61.

 

§446.  Such ministers, commissioners, consuls, and vice-consuls, shall have power to take acknowledgments of powers of attorney, to administer oaths, and to take depositions and affidavits, to be used in this Kingdom.

 

§447.  It shall be the duty of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to issue and promulgate all proclamations, and orders in council, in anywise affecting the relations of this government with any foreign nation.

 

§448.  The Minister of Foreign Affairs is charged with the requisition upon foreign governments, for the surrender of persons charged with the commission of crimes within this Kingdom; and he is also charged with the surrender of fugitives from justice, coming to this kingdom from any foreign country.

 

§449.  The respective judges and magistrates of the Kingdom shall have authority, upon complaint made under oath, to issue a warrant for the apprehension of any person charged with the commission of a crime, in any foreign country, that he may be brought before such judges, or other magistrates respectively, to the end that the evidence of criminality may be heard and considered; and if, on such hearing, the evidence be deemed sufficient to sustain the charge, it shall be the duty of the examining judge or magistrate to certify the same to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that he may issue a warrant for the surrender of such fugitive.

 

§450.  Before issuing any such warrant, the Minister of Foreign Affairs shall be satisfied that the expenses of apprehension and detention of the fugitive have been paid, or that the representative of the nation has assumed the payment of such expenses.

 

§451.  The warrant of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, directing the surrender of any fugitive from justice, shall be binding upon all officers of His Majesty’s Government, in anywise having the custody of such fugitive.

 

§452.  Every fugitive from justice may be retained in prison after his surrender, until a suitable opportunity occurs for his removal, at the expense of the officer to whom he is surrendered.

 

§453.  The Minister of Foreign Affairs may issue passports to all ministers, diplomatic agents, and consuls of the King, sent abroad, and to the consuls and other commercial agents of foreign governments, and to all subjects of the Kingdom going abroad, who may desire the same.

 

§454.  Said passports shall be issued free of charge, signed by the said minister, and impressed with the seal of his department and shall exonerate all masters of vessels, from any liabilities for having conveyed the persons named in such passports out of the jurisdiction of this Kingdom.

 

§455.  The Minister of Foreign Affairs, upon being duly notified that any alien foreigner has died intestate within this Kingdom, leaving residuary assets therein, but no heirs, shall immediately give notice thereof to the accredited representative, or consul, of the nation to which the deceased belonged.

 

§456.  If such residuary assets shall be claimed in behalf of any foreign heir, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, upon being satisfied of the claimant’s right to receive them, shall order the same to be delivered to him, after deducting the proper charges for receiving and keeping the same.  And all persons having such assets in custody, shall deliver the same to the person named in such order.

 

§457.  In case the Minister of Foreign Affairs shall not be satisfied of the claimant’s right to receive such residuary assets, it shall be competent for such claimant to institute a suit for their recovery, against said minister, before the courts of the Kingdom, and the final judgment rendered in the case shall be conclusive upon the parties.

 

 

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