**LETTERS OF CREDENCE** – This is the proper designation of the formal act by which one State establishes its diplomatic agent (v.) in another.
Letters of credence are addressed from head of State to head of State when the diplomatic agent is an ambassador, minister plenipotentiary, or resident minister; from minister to minister of foreign affairs when the agent is a chargé d’affaires. The agent is invested with his functions upon presentation of the letters of credence (which occurs with the special formalities prescribed by diplomatic ceremonial), and from that moment he must be regarded as an organ performing acts internationally attributable to the accrediting State.
When the agent is recalled by his government, he usually presents, with the same formalities, letters of recall, receiving in return from the competent organ of the State to which he is accredited the *lettres de récréance*.
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