Executive Order 5126—Amendment to the Instructions to Diplomatic Officers of 1927 Pertaining to Leave of Absence

Paragraph 5 of Chapter VI of the Instructions to Diplomatic Officers of the United States, 1927, "Leaves of absence" is hereby amended to read as follows:

VI-5. Conditions under which leaves of absence are granted.—Leave of absence is granted, within statutory limitations, at the discretion of the President, acting through the Secretary of State. Leaves of absence are of two kinds, simple leave, and leave with permission to visit the United States. The granting of a simple leave of absence does not carry with it permission to return to the United States A diplomatic officer must receive express permission to return, in order that he may be entitled to the benefit of the statutory allowance of salary in transit.

Simple leave of absence with salary may be granted for not more than thirty days in any one year, except in the case of Ambassadors and Ministers, who may have sixty days leave each year, and except (1) in the case of illness on the part of the officer or a member of his family, (2) in the event of service at a post designated as unhealthy under Section 18K of the Act of May 24, 1924, (3) in the event of service at a post, other than those indicated in (2), designated by the Secretary of State as tropical, but not merely remote or (4) in other exceptional circumstances, when simple leave with pay may be extended to a total of sixty days in one year, but no longer.

Leave of absence with permission to visit the United States, for not to exceed sixty days in each calendar year, may be granted with salary to all Ambassadors and Ministers and for not to exceed sixty days in any calendar year to other diplomatic officers not more often than once in every two calendar years except in cases where the health of officers requires that they should be absent from their posts, when continuous leave not to exceed sixty days in either year may be granted covering parts of two successive years.

Leave is granted for a calendar year and, whether used or not, expires on December thirty-first of that year. When leave with permission to visit the United States (other than by reason of the health of officers) is completed in the United States at the end of a calendar year or expires by reason of the above limitation, the officer may be granted so much of the leave to which he would be entitled, under the foregoing provisions, in the succeeding calendar year as will bring his aggregate leave for the two years to the following amounts subject to the law that the maximum period during which salary may be paid in any one year is sixty days:

(1) Not to exceed ninety days for officers at posts other than those designated as tropical or unhealthy;

(2) Not to exceed one hundred twenty days for officers at posts designated as tropical or unhealthy;

(3) Not to exceed one hundred twenty days in exceptional circumstances other than service in remote places.

In any case in which leave of absence in one calendar year is to be extended to cover continuously all or a portion of the leave for the ensuing year, the absence in the first year may be supplemented in the discretion of the Department by leave without salary in sufficient amount to cover the absence to the end of that calendar year, in order that the leave with pay in the following year may be available. Whenever leave of absence is claimed to be necessary on account of illness it is desirable that a certificate of the physician in attendance be forwarded to the Secretary of State.—R.S. Secs. 1740, 1742.

Leave of absence with permission to visit the United States is granted exclusive of the time actually and necessarily occupied in transit by the most direct route from the officer's post to his residence in the United States and return to his post. Salary for said transit period will be paid in addition to the salary for the duration of the leave of absence.—R.S. Sec. 1742; 14 Comp. Dec. 61. Salary will not be paid for more than one transit period in any one year (10 Comp. Dec. 465; 11 Comp. Dec. 123) except that when all or part of a transit period occurs in a calendar year other than that in which the leave of absence was taken it will not impair the right of the diplomatic officer to another transit period during that calendar year if leave should be granted.—14 Comp. Dec. 61.

If consistent with the public interest leave of absence, for good reason, may be granted for a longer time than that stipulated in the foregoing, but without compensation—R.S. Sec. 1742; E.O. Sept. 11, 1923.

HERBERT HOOVER

The White House,
May 24, 1929.