light is authorized in any case of an officer or soldier absent from duty on account of disease resulting from any cause stated in the following proviso of the act of April 27, 1914, 38 Stat., 353, 354:

Provided, That hereafter no officer or enlisted man in active service who shall be absent from duty on account of disease resulting from his own intemperate use of drugs or alcoholic liquors or other misconduct shall receive pay for the period of such absence, the time so absent and the cause thereof to be ascertained under such procedure and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War.

The Army appropriation act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1922, approved June 30, 1921, 42 Stat., 75, provides:

For commutation of quarters and heat and light to commissioned officers. warrant officers, members of the Nurse Corps, and enlisted men on duty at places where no public quarters are available,

This accords with the acts of February 27, 1893, 27 Stat., 480; March 2, 1901, 31 Stat., 901; March 2, 1907, 34 Stat., 1169; and March 4, 1915, 38 Stat., 1069, relating to such commutation. The person entitled to the commutation is the person described in the act who is on duty at a place where no public quarters are available.

In the cases of commissioned officers of the Army who during the emergency were on duty in the field or on active duty without the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, and maintained a place of abode for a wife, child, or dependent parent, where quarters in kind were not available, the act of April 16, 1918, 40 Stat., 530, provides for such officer's commutation of quarters, heat, and light for such dependents. The limitation to period "during the present emergency" was extended by section 2 of the act of May 18, 1920, 41 Stat., 602," until June 30, 1922 "; and by said section such rights and benefits as are prescribed for officers in said act of April 16, 1918, "shall apply equally for enlisted men now entitled by regulations to quarters or to commutation there for."

Paragraph 1301, Army Regulations, as amended May 13, 1919, by C. A. R. No. 88, is as follows:

An officer on duty at a station where he is properly in receipt of commutation of quarters is entitled to the allowance during ordinary leave on full pay, and on sick leave. If he is relieved from duty at the station and then avails himself of a leave, his commutation ceases.

The question presented for decision is whether an officer or soldier "absent from duty" under conditions described in the act of April 27, 1914, is “on duty" within the meaning of the statutes relating to the payment of commutation of quarters, heat, and light, and the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of War which are in conformity with the statutes.

The provisions of law relating to commutation of quarters, heat, and light are such that for the period an officer or enlisted man is not actually or constructively on duty he is not entitled to the commutation in his own right, and for the period he is not either actu

ally or constructively on duty in the field or on active duty without the territorial jurisdiction of the United States he is not entitled to commutation for his dependents.

If an officer or a soldier is absent from duty on a pay status the fact of such absence does not deprive him of such commutation. If he is absent from duty on account of disease resulting from any cause stated in the act of April 27, 1914, he is not in a pay status. Your question is answered as follows:

An officer or soldier during the period he is absent from duty on account of disease resulting from any cause stated in the act of April 27, 1914, 38 Stat., 353, 354, which results in his being absent from duty on a nonpay status or who is otherwise absent from duty on a nonpay status is not entitled to commutation of quarters, heat, and light.

CLERKS, UNITED STATES COURTS-COMPENSATION.

Where the salary of a clerk of a United States court was inadvertently fixed in a lower grade than he was entitled to under provisions of the act of February 26. 1919, 40 Stat., 1182, the certificate of the Attorney General correcting the erroneous action of his predecessor, by placing the clerk in the proper grade, may be given retroactive effect to July 1, 1919, the date the controlling act became effective, and payment of back pay to that date at the increased rate is authorized.

Decision by Comptroller General McCarl, September 3, 1921:

The Chief, State and Other Departments Division, has submitted for approval, disapproval, or modification, memorandum decision to the effect that a certificate by the Attorney General dated June 28, 1921, can not be given a retroactive application in fixing the salaries of the clerks of the Federal courts for North Dakota and Wyoming at $4,000 per annum from July 1, 1919, instead of $3,500 per annum, as stated in the general schedule fixing all such salaries under the act of February 26, 1919, 40 Stat., 1182, and also that said certificate being stated to correct error in the previous fixing of the salaries, it is sufficient to authorize the payment of such salaries at $4,000 per annum after June 28, 1921.

The certificate of the Attorney General is as follows:

ORDER NO.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D. C., June 28, 1921.

In order to correct error arising through inadvertently failing to take into consideration certain vital facts affecting the relative earnings of the clerk of the United States district courts, for the judicial districts of North Dakota and Wyoming, and peculiar to said districts, which if they had been taken into consideration would have placed said clerks in the class for which salaries of $4,000 per annum were fixed, the salaries of the clerks of the United States district courts for said district are hereby fixed at $4,000 per annum, respectively, from July 1, 1919, instead of $3,500 per annum, as stated in the general

schedule fixing all such salaries under the provisions of the act of February 26, 1919, entitled "An act fixing the salaries of the clerks of the United States district courts, and to provide for their office expenses and for other purposes," and said general schedule of salaries is hereby modified accordingly.

H. M. DAUGHERTY,

Attorney General.

The question of the salaries of the clerks of the United States district courts for the judicial districts of North Dakota and Wyoming was the matter of several decisions by the former Comptroller of the Treasury. 26 Comp. Dec., 1073, July 24, 1920, December 10, 1920, and June 16, 1921. The former Comptroller of the Treasury was of the opinion, as expressed in these decisions, that when the salaries of the clerks had been fixed by the Attorney General in pursuance of the act of February 26, 1919, his power thereunder was exhausted, and neither he nor his successor could thereafter lawfully readjust any salaries so fixed in any individual case, but also expressed the view that—

If, however, through error, or inadvertence, the salaries of these two clerks have not been adjusted in accordance with a construction of the statute as applied generally to clerks similarly situated, I think they are still open to adjustment upon such legal basis, the failure of your predecessor to so adjust them being an error of fact open to correction by you.

I understand that the certificate of the Attorney General of June 28, 1921, is given in connection with this view of the former Comptroller of the Treasury. The certificate does not set out in detail the facts relating to the errors therein corrected, and I think that it properly should have shown the general character of those errors. The responsibility, however, is that of the Attorney General, and the issuing of that certificate justifies the accounting officers in assuming in connection with what was heretofore submitted to the accounting officers that there was before him everything necessary showing error in the action of the former Attorney General. If such error existed it necessarily must have existed in the original fixing of the amounts of the salaries, and hence the correction must relate back to the original date. This is not giving retroactive effect in the ordinary sense, but making the salaries the true salaries from their proper date. The memorandum decision submitted is modified accordingly

REINSTATEMENT OF LAPSED OR CANCELED WAR RISK INSURANCE.

Where permanent total disability of persons insured under the war risk insurance act intervenes between the lapse or concellation of the policies and applications for reinstatement there is no longer any insurance to be reinstated, the contingency insured against having already happened. Reinstatement of lapsed or canceled war risk insurance is authorized regardless of the physical condition of the applicant at time the application is made, provided that any disqualifying disease or injury or aggravation thereof existing at that time was suffered in active service in the World

War, and that proof showing the service origin of the disease, injury, or aggravation thereof, satisfactory to the director, be submitted during the lifetime of the insured.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Secretary of the Treasury, September 3, 1921:

Referring to your request of July 8, 1921, for review by the Comptroller General of a decision rendered by the Comptroller of the Treasury June 28, 1921, 27 Comp. Dec., 1084, dealing with reinstatement of war risk insurance which had lapsed or been canceled, you are advised that at the time your request was received there was pending before Congress a bill to establish a Veterans' Bureau and to further amend the war risk insurance act which dealt with the matter of reinstatement of lapsed or canceled insurance. Action upon your request was postponed until this bill should have been disposed of in order that the contemplated review might be had in the light of this legislation if it should be enacted into law. The bill as finally amended has now been enacted into the law of August 9, 1921, 42 Stat., 156, and the way is open to final disposition of your request.

The law establishes the Veterans' Bureau as an independent bureau under the President, so that the Secretary of the Treasury is no longer charged with supervision of the administration of war risk insurance laws. However, your request for review of the Comptroller's decision was presented to me while you were still in charge of that work, and therefore may properly be taken up and disposed of by a decision for the information and guidance of the officials of the newly created bureau, to whom a copy of the decision will be sent.

The facts before the Comptroller and his conclusion thereon are set forth in his decision and need not be reviewed at length in this connection. The general question for decision was whether the Bureau of War Risk Insurance should pay certain insurance which had lapsed or been canceled, and had subsequently been reinstated without medical examination upon a statement by the applicant that he was in as good health as at the date of discharge or expiration of the grace period, when in fact after discovered evidence disclosed facts upon which the medical officers of the bureau based opinions that the reinstated applicants were not in as good health at the time of reinstatement as at the time of discharge or expiration of grace period. The Comptroller found no statute expressly regulating reinstatement of lapsed or canceled insurance. He did not question the right of the bureau to reinstate such insurance, but decided that reinstatement must be subject to the general right to insurance as conferred and limited by statute. As the statute provided for issuance of insurance without medical examination, he decided that lapsed or can

celed insurance must be reinstated, if at all, upon the footing thus established for war risk insurance. The only qualification placed upon this decision was that the applicant for reinstatement must not during the lapse interval have become totally disabled so as to have no insurable interest to reinstate, and must not during said interval have contracted any new disqualifying disease or injury, the risk of which had not been assumed by the Government under the policy of insurance to be reinstated.

Section 27 of the act of August 9, 1921, 42 Stat. 156, hereinbefore referred to provides:

SEC. 27. A new section is hereby added to Article IV of the war risk insurance act, to be known as section 408, and to read as follows:

"SEC. 408. In the event that all provisions of the rules and regulations other than the requirements as to the physical condition of the applicant for insurance have been complied with, an application for reinstatement of lapsed or canceled yearly renewable term insurance or application for United States Government life insurance (converted insurance) hereafter made may be approved: Provided, That the applicant's disability is the result of an injury or disease or of an aggravation thereof suffered or contracted in the active military or naval service during the World War: Provided further, That the applicant during his lifetime submits proof satisfactory to the director showing the service origin of the disability or aggravation thereof and that the applicant is not totally and permanenly disabled. As a condition, however, to the acceptance of an application for the reinstatement of lapsed or canceled yearly renewable term insurance or United States Government life insurance (converted insurance) the applicant shall be required to pay all the back monthly premiums which would have become payable if such insurance had not lapsed, together with interest at the rate of 5 per centum per annum compounded annually on each premium from the date said premium is due by the terms of the policy: Provided further, That where any soldier has heretofore allowed his insurance to lapse, while suffering from wounds or disease suffered or contracted in line of service, and was at the time he allowed his said policy to lapse entitled to compensation on account thereof in a sum equal to or in excess of the amount due from him in premiums on his said insurance, and has since died from said wounds or disease without collecting or making claim for said compensation, or being allowed to reinstate his said policy on account of his physical condition, then and in that event said policy shall not be considered as lapsed, and the Veterans' Bureau is hereby authorized and directed to pay to the beneficiaries of said soldier under said policy the amount of said insurance less the premiums and interest thereon at 5 per centum per annum compounded annually in installments as provided by law."

All pending or future applications for reinstatement of insurance will be dealt with under this section, and if any doubtful question of payment shall arise in connection with any such application it may be submitted by the Veterans' Bureau for decision of the Comptroller General. The effect of the Comptroller's decision is now limited to those cases which were in fact reinstated by the Bureau of War Risk Insurance upon a misstatement of the comparative condition of the applicant's health, intentional or otherwise. This review, therefore, will be limited to the operation of his decision upon those cases.

Both the Comptroller's decision and the new statute bar from the right to reinstatement those who have become permanently totally disabled after lapse or cancellation of their insurance and before