MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENTS Minor Departments In this chapter will be briefly discussed the operations of vari ous minor departments of the foreign division. It is not meant to imply that these departments, or any of them, are not important or that their work is not essential to the conduct of the bank. But an extended discussion of their operations is not given here for the reasons that analogous departments exist in the domestic division, of which, in Volumes III and IV, a full description has been given, and that either their work is relatively simple and can be stated briefly or their duties are too multifarious and technical to de scribe in detail. For instance, in Volume IV, Chapter XLVII, the work of the credit department of the. domestic division is described in detail, and the foreign credit department is included as a division of that department. The nature of the foreign credit department can be understood from the description of the foreign trade department in Volume III, Chapter XXXVIII, and of the credit department in Volume IV. Its relation to the management of the foreign division is told in Volume V, Chapter LIII. Again, the work of such a department as the translators' department is so uniform and simple that few words are needed to describe it, whereas that of the legal department is so diverse and technical as to defeat or make undesirable much general ization.
The Nature of the Foreign Correspondence of a Bank The handling of the incoming and outgoing foreign mail and cables is a responsible part of the work of the foreign division. Various factors complicate foreign correspondence, such as great distances, high cable charges, few carriers, national boundaries, different commercial and postal systems, the necessity for trans lations, risks of ocean transit, use of duplicates of letters and documents, etc. The foreign mail is more irregular than the domestic and comes and goes in batches as the vessels arrive and sail. The possibilities of error are more numerous and the costs of corrections and adjustments are greater than in domestic mail. Since the mail is in transit longer and mail schedules are less dependable, the figuring of interest on funds in transit is both an important and a difficult problem.
The work incident to the receipt and despatch of foreign communications is best handled in spedalized departments in large banks and by specialized clerks in smaller banks. This concentration leads to expertness in handling and makes easier the placing of responsibility and the location of errors. The work naturally divides itself into the following routine matters which may be advantageously handled in separate departments: r. The incoming mail 2. The outgoing mail 3. The registered mail 4. The translations 5. The cables The Foreign Incoming Mail Department The incoming foreign mail reaches the foreign incoming mail department in three ways: (r) the mail teller of the domestic divi sion turns over unopened to the foreign division all mail which from the address or other markings he knows ought to go to it; (2) when there is any doubt whether mail should go to the foreign or the domestic division it is opened and sorted by the mail teller and sent from the sorting room to the foreign incoming mail department; (3) after all registered mail has been signed for by the note teller in the mail teller's department the foreign portion i is sent to the foreign registered mail department, which is really a part of the larger incoming mail department.
All non-registered mail is sorted into racks according to the departments of the foreign division. Every item is then stamped with the date of receipt and a number. Specialized clerks are delegated to receive all the mail from certain territories, such as the South American, the West European, etc., and to make entry in a book of the numbers, dates, etc. This record makes it pos sible to know what mail has been received and to follow the item to see that the business is executed—an advantage that outweighs the delay occasioned by booking the items. After the mail is sorted, stamped, and recorded, it is distributed to the proper departments, and most of the clerks are then free to work in other departments for the rest of the day.