Imperial consulates

[rancke]

I've been thinking about some sort of guidelines for determining how big a staff an Imperial Consulate might have and what their functions might be. This would be something that any referee could use for any Imperial world from Gateway to the Solomani Rim (And for worlds outside the Imperium too).

The size of the staff would be correlated to the importance of the world, especially to its economic importance (actually, to the number of Imperial citizens that would live on or visit the world). So population size and starport class would factor into it. What would be a reasonable size of a consular staff?

The adventure Zilan Wine (in The Traveller Adventure) lists the following functionaries in the Zilan Imperial consulate:

* Receptionist
* Clerk in the Consulate Visas Section
* Vice-Consul for Visas, Pensions, and Veteran's Affairs
* Vice-Consul for Citizenship, Protection, and Welfare
* Vice-Consul for Shipping and Mercantile Affairs
* Imperial Consul on Zila

Zila has a population of 66 million and an UWP of E26772C-7[*]

[*]<sigh> Another of those freakishly small worlds with breathable atmospheres).​

So what would an Imperial consulate be expected to do? What people work at one? Are they all Imperials or are the clerks locals? Is there a marine guard or is it just an office? What functions, other than the ones mentioned in Zilan Wine, are there?

One curious fact to note is than on Zila the consulate is located in the startown rather than in the capital. Is that usual or unusual? Is there, perhaps, an Imperial embassy in the Zilan capital that just wasn't mentioned in the adventure, with an Imperial Legate in addition to the Imperial Consul? There's no trace of one in Zilan Wine.

Here is what I have so far:

One consul (Or more than one for worlds with multiple big cities? (This might tie in with having an Imperial Legate too)).

A Vice-Consul for Visas, Pensions, and Veteran's Affairs
A Vice-Consul for Citizenship, Protection, and Welfare
A Vice-Consul for Shipping and Mercantile Affairs​

Are there any other vice-consuls? Just because they aren't mentioned in Zilan Wine doesn't mean they can't exist (Presumably there are more clerks in the Zilan consulate than the single one mentioned). But what would more vice-consuls be in charge of?

A Visas section (More than one clerk? What sort of visas do the Imperium issue?)

A Pensions Section (not much mystery there; they pay out Imperial pensions).

A Veteran's Affairs Section (Is that separate or part of the Pensions section? If it is separate, what do they do that makes a separate section necessary?)

Does Citizenship, Protection, and Welfare have a section each and what exactly do the different labels cover?

Is "Shipping and Mercantile Affairs" one or two sections? If it is a single section it is a big one, with an entire vice-consul to itself.

Each section would have one or several clerks. (How many?)

A receptionist​

Anything else? Janitorial staff? Cooks, cleaners, guards?



Hans

 

[MCEvans]

personally I would have at least 3 clerks per Vice-Consul and if they covered more sections 3 clerks per section. I see the number of Vice-Consuls going up or down with the population. On high Pop worlds each section would have its own VC and on low Pop worlds even fewer.

Of the VC's mentioned in Zilian Wine were those typically dealing with the interstellar community any others would probably be at the capital unless it would be better for them to be stationed elsewhere VC for scientific advancement at a research park or close to several Universities.

Using Supp4 - Diplomats ranks
Consul = 6 (Ambassador)
Vice- Consul = 5 (Minister)
Section Head = 4 (Counselor)

any Consulates away from the capital and/or starport would be headed by a rank 4 (Counselor) with some 1st or 2nd Secretaries (ranks 3 & 2) below him.

Just some late night ideas.

 

[rancke]

Of the VC's mentioned in Zilian Wine were those typically dealing with the interstellar community any others would probably be at the capital unless it would be better for them to be stationed elsewhere VC for scientific advancement at a research park or close to several Universities.

The Imperial Consulate (the building) is located in Crescence, the starport city (The starport, Government Towers, the Administrative Complex, and the Imperial Consulate are all located in different parts of Crescence (it takes time to move between them; it takes no time to move between offices in the same location)). All the listed consulate staff are found at the Consulate, both receptionist, clerk, vice-consuls, and consul.

It's possible that Crescence is the capital of Zila. A quick browse through the relevant sections of The Traveller Adventure didn't turn up any statement for or against that. Amali, the capital referred to in the adventure is a provincial capital.


Hans

 

[Rraurgrimm]

Just a question that occurred to me while reading: Zila seems to have an E-class 'starport' barely more than a landing field with limited facilities. I would imagine that the main starport of almost every world would be an Imperial one - at least in OTU that is one requirement to become a member of the Imperium, allowing interstellar trade via standartized starports. We saw those starports more or less as Imperial embassy grounds and any diplomatic personnel would usually reside on or very close to the starport. The quality and number of the personnel would be guided by the starport class and the world it is on - I'd exspect a large base with an A-class starport. If that A-class starport is on a world with a high population, I'd exspect an Imperial consulate. The smaller the starport (and the world population), the more probable it would be that there would be less personnel, perhaps the starport administrator also has diplomatic functions and can muster one or two clerks and guards. Those could be hired from local forces - yet I think the Imperium would have Imperial citizens as diplomats in most situations.

Admittedly, using the old UWPs sometimes requires tweaking. While I could explain a few worlds, others do not make that much sense: why would a highpop, highTL world maintain only a rather small starport - especially as a member of the Imperium? And apart from perhaps historic reasons - why would some small fringe worlds have large starports - where there is not much use to stop even with a jump-2 ship, especially if there are much more promising, neighboring worlds alternatively. It is what You get with an individually rolled UWP.

 

[Easterner9504]

Small worlds with atmo is not a problem if they are composed of heavy dense metals.

Starport size is related to manufacturing. It would be as if Kennedy and O'Hare were also where Boeing and McDonnell Douglas were located. While Skyharbor in Phoenix is a Class E while Falcon Field in Mesa is a Class B (Has Boeing helicopters and some small companies located there. FF is a WW2 fighter base and can barely handle B-17's and Constellations while SH is a multi runwayed International airport.

That is oddity of SP size. A class E is all that's needed anywhere with cargo handlers and nearby warehouse, terminals needed if heavy passenger travel. Fuel would be nice too but that again is related to size.

My bugaboo is where do you get fuel from on Class A(B oe C) in no water, no gas giant systems!

 

[Sir Brad]

A high Class star-port usually has a Navy base attached to it, so a low Pop pre- or early- Stellar world with a Class A or B Star-Port and a Naval base is like Peril Harbour cica 1942. the Navy base and Major Merchant Lines terminals where TL-6, most of Honolulu and the rest of the port was TL-5 with some TL-6 toys floating around and some TL-4 sections where outside of town you had the Pineapple, Coffee and Macadamia farmers living and working in TL-4 conditions with a few TL-5 toys and many of the Indigenous population living traditional lifestyles at lower TL's.

Now imagine the Trav equivalent, out on the fringe lets call the world Hona we'll make it TL-6 with a Class-B star-port and a Naval Base. the Prevailing TL is 6, their is some remnant TL-5 tech floating around especially in the planets backwaters, the Star Port ships in components from near by TL10-13 worlds and the Navy ships in parts from further a field worlds with TL's of 14 & 15. Hona's main port that we will call Pearl Downs and the attached Startown, most of it will built at TL-6 but likely be wired for both TL-6 native power and to use TL-10 imports, the Impies and off world Corps will likely have some built structures at higher TL's. Now the only reason Hona has a Class-B star port is likely because of the Navy Base, shut that down and the port will likely regress to D or E, unless the world is a stopover between some distant clusters or trade station for an Interface set up.

 

[BruceEdwinMorrow]

Here is my take on Imperial Consulate staffing. This is just cleared, direct hire diplomats and attached military. Figure three to five local hires for every cleared officer. The local hires handle all the jobs that don't require special oversight, clearance, or are otherwise inherently governmental - gardening, driving, translating, assisting with open source reporting, protocol, repairing the A/C, distributing mail, shuffling visa paperwork (the officers makes the decision, the clerk moves the paper) etc.

Offical facilities will include a Chancery (with the Ambassador/Consul's Office), an Administrative Annex, Motorpool, Warehouse, MSG house, Ambassador's residence, DCM residence, and Public Outreach Offices. The most senstive work will only be done in the Chancery - also the only building guarded by the Military Security Guards (Army/Marines).

Figure 80-90 visa's per day per line visa officer (so don't count chiefs/deputies in that section) for moderate visa demand, 100 a day for heavy demand.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Embassy - headed by an Ambassador
-Staff Assistant: 3rd Secretary

Deputy Chief of Mission: Minister

Subsections:

Political –Minister
-Reporting Officers (2-5) – 1st /2nd /3rd Secretaries

Economic – Minister
-Reporting Officers (2-5) – 1st /2nd /3rd Secretaries

Administration – Minister
-Information Technology – Counselor
--Cleared IT Staff - 1st /2nd /3rd Secretaries
-Deputy Admin – Counselor
-Facilities Management – 1st/2nd Secretary
-Procurement – 1st/2nd Secretary
--Customs/Transportation/Inventory Control – 2nd/3rd Secretary
-Finance -1st/2nd Secretary
-HR – 1st/2nd Secretary

Outreach – Minister
-Deputy: Consul
-Outreach Officer: 1st /2nd /3rd Secretaries
Security – Counselor
-Deputy Security – 1st Secretary
-Assistant Security Officers (2-3) – 2nd/3rd Secretary

Defense Cooperation –Colonel
-Staff: another pair of Officers (Capt-Major), 3-4 Senior NCOs

Consular – Minister
-Deputy – Counselor
-Citizen Services Chief – 1st Secretary
--Citizen Services Officer: 2nd/3rd Secretary
-Immigrant Visa Chief -1st Secretary
--Visa Officers (2-4): 2nd/3rd Secretary
-Non Immigrant Visa Chief – 1st Secretary
--Visa Officers (3-11): 2nd/3rd Secretary

Military Security Detachment: 7-11 watch standers plus one Detachment Commander and one A/Det Commander

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small Consulate – headed by a Consul

Subsections:

Political/Econ -1st Secretary
-Reporting Officer: 2nd/3rd Secretary

Administration – 1st Secretary
-Information Technology – 1st Secretary
--Cleared IT Staff - 2nd /3rd Secretary
-Procurement/Customs/Transportation/Inventory Control/Facility Mgmt. – 2nd/3rd Secretary
-Finance/HR-2nd/3rd Secretary

Outreach – 1st Secretary

Security – 1st Secretary
-Assistant Security Officer – 2nd/3rd Secretary

Consular – Counselor
-Citizen Services Officer –2nd/3rd Secretary
-Immigrant Visa Chief/Non Immigrant Visa Officers (2-3): 2nd/3rd Secretary

Military Security Detachment: 5 watchstanders plus one Detachment Commander

 

[rancke]

Just a question that occurred to me while reading: Zila seems to have an E-class 'starport' barely more than a landing field with limited facilities.

The starport described for Zila is quite clearly something more than a class E. For one thing, it has an entire department for its starport personnel and four named functionaries listed, so it cannot be described as unmanned by any strecth of the imagination. The commercial traffic implied is also big enough to make it highly unreasonable that no refined fuel would be available. A starport rating of C (or even C+ [*]) would be far more likely.

[*] A C+ starport is my term for a starport that has everything a class B starport has except for a boatyard.​

Zilan Wine is a variant of Exit Visa, an adventure set on Alell that also appeared as Stranded on Arden (set on Arden, of course).Each version has some of the functionaries different, but others are the same. I don't recall the copyright dates, but my guess is that Zilan Wine is not the first version.

I would imagine that the main starport of almost every world would be an Imperial one - at least in OTU that is one requirement to become a member of the Imperium, allowing interstellar trade via standartized starports.

Agreed.

We saw those starports more or less as Imperial embassy grounds and any diplomatic personnel would usually reside on or very close to the starport. The quality and number of the personnel would be guided by the starport class and the world it is on - I'd exspect a large base with an A-class starport. If that A-class starport is on a world with a high population, I'd exspect an Imperial consulate. The smaller the starport (and the world population), the more probable it would be that there would be less personnel, perhaps the starport administrator also has diplomatic functions and can muster one or two clerks and guards. Those could be hired from local forces - yet I think the Imperium would have Imperial citizens as diplomats in most situations.

I'm looking for suggestions for how to quantify the size of a given Imperial Consulate staff.

Admittedly, using the old UWPs sometimes requires tweaking. While I could explain a few worlds, others do not make that much sense: why would a highpop, highTL world maintain only a rather small starport - especially as a member of the Imperium? And apart from perhaps historic reasons - why would some small fringe worlds have large starports - where there is not much use to stop even with a jump-2 ship, especially if there are much more promising, neighboring worlds alternatively. It is what You get with an individually rolled UWP.

Unfortunately, GDW published UWPs without vetting them for self-consistency first, and Marc Miller has been very reluctant to tamper with them. I understand that he has relaxed considerably of late and he has definitely allowed some corrections, but I don't think the case of Zila has ever been brought up for review. I know I've never thought about it at all.

Be that as it may, I mentioned Zila only because it (together with Arden and Alell) is the best (only?) source of information about Imperial Consulates we have. A discussion of the plausibility of Zila's starport here would be a distraction. If you want to go any further into it, may I suggest starting a separate thread? For this discussion, let's just assume the text description of the starport trumphs the UWP.


Hans

 

[rancke]

Small worlds with atmo is not a problem if they are composed of heavy dense metals.

Small worlds composed of heavy dense metals are a problem in itself. Worlds composed of heavy dense metals with topsoils that will allow crops to be grown without being poisonous to humans is also a problem, as is wolrds composed of heavy dense metals that doesn't get into the atmosphere to taint it.

My bugaboo is where do you get fuel from on Class A(B oe C) in no water, no gas giant systems!

Hydrographic percentage denotes freestanding water/ice. Worlds with hydrographics 0 can have as much as 4% freestanding water and any amount of subsurface water.

Also, systems without gas giants can have any amount of terrestrial worlds with ice or even water that for some reason are nevertheless not the mainworld. The main problem there is to come up with an explanation of why one of those worlds isn't the mainworld instead, but it's a possibility.


Hans

 

[Dragoner]

Zila has a population of 66 million and an UWP of E26772C-7[*]

I see UWP E25672C-7 on Travellermap, which is the one from supp3 I think.

Are there federal buildings where you live? That is what the consulate seems like to me, most likely employees of the Imperium. As per visa services, you would need the services all across the Imperium if you are issuing them for entry, work or whatever.

 

[rancke]

I see UWP E25672C-7 on Travellermap, which is the one from supp3 I think.

Sorry, a transcription error on my part. E25672C-7 it is.

Are there federal buildings where you live? That is what the consulate seems like to me, most likely employees of the Imperium. As per visa services, you would need the services all across the Imperium if you are issuing them for entry, work or whatever.

Yes, but if a Reginan needs a visa to be allowed to go to Efate, surely it is Efate that requires it of him, not the Imperium. Does the government of Efate not have any direct representative on Regina and vice versa? These are two sovereign governments presumably with considerable interaction below the level of Imperial involvement. Is the Imperium doing the work of its member worlds for them? Maybe that's part of the membership agreement.

Personally I'd prefer the matter to be variable. Some worlds have consuls of their own; some worlds leave it to the Imperial Consul. Efate would have an embassy on Regina, Mora, and various other worlds that it has significant interaction with. Perhaps on Capital as well. It would have consuls from its diplomatic service on most of the closest ones (e.g. Louzy, Alell, Boughene, Menorb, Uakye). It would have the other kind of consul (local bigwig with some connection to Efate who acts for it) on a couple of hundred more worlds. It would not have any representatives at all with the remaining 8,750 Imperial worlds. On those worlds its (very rare) transactions are handled by the Imperial representative.


Hans

 

[Dragoner]

I've never heard of individual worlds needing visas; imo, it is Imperium wide, you need a visa to get into the Imperium, for work, study, etc. . For that there would need to be a visa service on every Imperial world.

 

[rancke]

I've never heard of individual worlds needing visas; imo, it is Imperium wide, you need a visa to get into the Imperium, for work, study, etc. . For that there would need to be a visa service on every Imperial world.

If you're on an Imperial world you're already IN the Imperium.

I don't think we're heard about needing visas to enter the Imperium from outside either. Although that certainly doesn't rule out the possibility that you do. As with a lot of aspects about life in the Imperium, we only have tantalizing throwaway hints (such as the existence of a Consulate Visas Section).


Hans

 

[Dragoner]

If you're on an Imperial world you're already IN the Imperium.

I don't think we're heard about needing visas to enter the Imperium from outside either. Although that certainly doesn't rule out the possibility that you do. As with a lot of aspects about life in the Imperium, we only have tantalizing throwaway hints (such as the existence of a Consulate Visas Section).


Hans

The example for the Imperium imo is the US, with a federal gov't (eg Imperium) and state gov't. being the local worlds, two very distinct governmental layers that don't match. That is why I see the inner consulates as being like Federal Buildings are here.

 

[Hemdian]

I created this back in 2006 for IMTU.

 

[MCEvans]

The Imperial Consulate (the building) is located in Crescence, the starport city (The starport, Government Towers, the Administrative Complex, and the Imperial Consulate are all located in different parts of Crescence (it takes time to move between them; it takes no time to move between offices in the same location)). All the listed consulate staff are found at the Consulate, both receptionist, clerk, vice-consuls, and consul.

It's possible that Crescence is the capital of Zila. A quick browse through the relevant sections of The Traveller Adventure didn't turn up any statement for or against that. Amali, the capital referred to in the adventure is a provincial capital.


Hans

You're right. It was late and I didn't want to breakout my copy of TTA.

Also I was trying to cover the general areas of location for other worlds just not just Zila, with a small world like Zila most, if not all, IC offices could be located in the same building/complex.

BTW consulates from other countries in the US range from mini-Embasy to a small office with an entire staff of maybe 5 including the Consul. The size depends on what the country feels it needs and where it would be the most effective.

 

[agorski]

Another data point from Tarsus:

"The consular office on Tarsus is small, consisting of merely a suite of several rooms in an office building in Newland City and a staff of three. Of those three, two are clerks; the responsibility rests on the Consul..."

 

[Easterner9504]

Consulates represent a government away from its embassy.

So Regina would have a Zho Embassy (Ambassador mentioned back in JTAS 9 IIRC).

Every world in the Regina sector that has business dealings with the Zhos would have a Zho consulate.

The Imperium would do likewise in Zho territory.

 

[rancke]

Consulates represent a government away from its embassy.

So Regina would have an Embassy (Ambassador mentioned back in JTAS 9 IIRC).

Every world in the Regina sector that has business dealings with the Zhos would have a consulate.

Those are Zhodani embassies and consulates. Not Imperial embassies and consulates on member worlds.


Hans

 

[rancke]

Using Supp4 - Diplomats ranks
Consul = 6 (Ambassador)
Vice- Consul = 5 (Minister)
Section Head = 4 (Counselor)

A small aside: For an extended list of Diplomat ranks, GT:Nobles mentions

Minister Plenipotentiary (Minimum noble rank: Marquis)
Ambassador Extraordinary (Minimum noble rank: Baron)
Ambassador (Minimum noble rank: Knight/Baronet)​

Hans