State Department Closes Offices

The State Department is closing two embassies and 11 consulates as part of budget cuts approved by Congress in July.

One of them, the U.S. consulate in Bordeaux in southwest France, was the oldest U.S. diplomatic office in the world. All will be closed by Sept. 30, end of the fiscal year.

In some areas, the State Department is replacing the consulates with a one-person consular agency staffed by an American citizen who can help out in emergencies, a spokesman said.

“That person won’t be able to spring you from jail,” he said, “but he can notify American officials at the nearest consulate or embassy that there’s a problem.”

In countries with good communications, the spokesman said, consulates do not play the vital role they once did. Some are historically interesting, he said, but “in terms of today’s money, they just aren’t as necessary as in the past.”

He also said the State Department has had to open posts in places such as the new countries that were once part of the former Soviet Union without receiving additional funding from Congress. Closing consulates helps make up the shortfall, he said.

Other European closings include the consulates in Poznan, Poland; Stuttgart, Germany; Zurich, Switzerland, and Bilbao, Spain.

Also closing are the consulates in Po^rto Alegre, Brazil; Brisbane, Australia; Cebu, the Phillippines; Medan, Indonesia; Udon Thani, Thailand, and Lubumbashi, Zaire.

The two embassies that are closing are in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea, and Victoria, capital of the Seychelles.