000 and less
than $3,000, and it is not filled by transfer, applications will be
addressed to the Secretary of State, inclosing proper certificates of
character, responsibility, and capacity, and the Secretary will notify
the applicant who upon investigation appears to be most suitable and
competent to attend for examination; and if he shall be found qualified
he will be nominated for confirmation, but if not found qualified, or
if his nomination be not confirmed by the Senate, the Secretary will
proceed in like manner with the other applicants who appear to him to
be qualified. If, however, no applicants under this regulation shall be
found suitable and qualified, the vacancy will be filled at discretion.
The appointment of commercial agents and of consuls whose annual
compensation is $1,000 or less (if derived from fees, the amount to be
ascertained by the last official returns), of vice-consuls, deputy
consuls, and of consular agents and other officers who are appointed
upon the nomination of the principal officer, and for whom he is
responsible upon his official bond, may be, until otherwise ordered,
excepted from the operation of the rules.

6. When a vacancy occurs in the office of collector of the customs,
naval officer, appraiser, or surveyor of the customs in the customs
districts of New York, Boston and Charlestown, Baltimore, San
Francisco, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Vermont (Burlington), Oswego,
Niagara, Buffalo Creek, Champlain, Portland and Falmouth, Corpus
Christi, Oswegatchie, Mobile, Brazos de Santiago (Brownsville), Texas
(Galveston, etc.), Savannah, Charleston, Chicago, or Detroit, the
Secretary of the Treasury shall ascertain if any of the subordinates in
the customs districts in which such vacancy occurs are suitable persons
qualified to discharge efficiently the duties of the office to be
filled; and if such persons be found he shall certify to the President
the name or names of those subordinates, not exceeding three, who in
his judgment are best qualified for the position, from which the
President will make the nomination to fill the vacancy; but if no such
subordinate be found qualified, or if the nomination be not confirmed,
the nomination will be made at the discretion of the President.
Vacancies occurring in such positions in the customs service in the
said districts as are included in the subjoined classification will
be