receipts, disbursements, etc., during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920, and that it is still carried on the books of the Treasury as without year. But the administrative action of the Treasury Department in classifying appropriations for the purpose of posting or reporting is not conclusive in the matter, the question as to the availability of appropriations being for determination by this office in the light of statutory enactments applicable thereto. 19 Comp. Dec., 263.

For reasons herein stated I have to advise that the appropriation in question is not available for obligations incurred after June 30, 1914.

COMMUTATION OF QUARTERS, HEAT AND LIGHT-ARMY

OFFICERS.

Quarters in an officers' club in a building owned or controlled by the Government at an Army camp are considered public quarters, occupancy of which, by an officer and his wife, precludes payment of commutation of quarters. Where the statutes authorizing the establishment and maintenance of an Army post, and actions of the War Department in connection therewith, indicate a clear intention to make the post a permanent one, officers on duty thereat may not be considered as "on field duty" within the meaning of the act of April 16, 1918, 40 Stat., 530, authorizing payment of commutation of quarters, heat and light for dependents to officers on field duty. An officer of the Army on duty at the Field Artillery School at Camp Knox, Ky., is not "on field duty" and is therefore not entitled to commutation of quarters heat and light for dependents.

Assistant Comptroller General Ginn to the Secretary of War, February 18, 1922:

I have your letter of January 26, 1922, requesting decision whether on the facts presented First Lieut. D. N. Hauseman, Ordnance Department, is entitled to commutation of quarters, heat, and light for dependents, while on duty at the Field Artillery School, Camp Knox, Ky.

It appears that on October 27, 1921, Lieut. Hauseman applied to the assistant commandant, Field Artillery School, Camp Knox, for quarters for himself and his wife; that upon receipt of advice that none were available he procured a room or rooms in the Officers' Club at Camp Knox; that he claimed commutation of quarters, heat, and light for dependents under the act of April 16, 1918, 40 Stat., 530; and that the disbursing officer declined to pay the voucher as he was of opinion that the case came within the decision of September 26, 1921, 1 Comp. Gen., 161.

The question is, therefore, whether the principles applicable to hostess houses and service clubs generally located on Governmentowned land, which was the matter of that decision, are applicable to the Officers' Club at Camp Knox.

The history of the building and other pertinent facts are contained in the following statement of the commanding officer at Camp Knox:

(a) The building in question was erected from private funds during the war upon the Government reservation of Camp Knox, Ky., by the War Camp Community Service.

(b) Upon the withdrawal of the War Camp Community Service from the camp, the building was neither abandoned nor turned over to the Government, but was taken over by a mutual association, to wit, the Officers' Club, and thereafter operated by them in the interest of the officers stationed in the camp.

(c) The said building has never been controlled nor operated by the Government through any of its agencies, but has remained under the control of the said Officers' Club.

(d) Repairs and cost of maintenance of the said building have not been paid for by the United States, nor have soldiers or civilians in the employ of the United States been engaged in such repairs or maintenance at any time. All repairs, maintenance, and service in the Officers' Club are paid for from the funds of the club.

(e) The rental of $30 per month for one room or $45 for two rooms has been a rental in the full sense of the word, and covers the items of hotel service, maintenance, heat, light, and a margin of profit that has accrued to the said Officers' Club, and has been utilized by the club in supporting other activities in which it is engaged.

(f) A certain amount of heat and light has been furnished by the Government to the club, said amount being taken as the proportion permissible in such cases from the allowances of officers participating in the privileges of the Officers' Club and not resident in the building. The remainder, corresponding to the allowances of officers resident in the club, has been refunded in cash to the Government through the agency of the club.

(g) There are no public quarters available for this officer at Camp Knox, Ky., at the present time, and he is therefore virtually obliged to reside at the club and to pay rent for his room therein. His only alternative is to rent quarters outside the camp, which would clearly entitle him to the commutation claimed, but which is not permissible under the conditions of service, due to the distance and consequent loss of time.

(h) The rooms occupied by officers at the Officers' Club are not adequate quarters, as contemplated by law and regulations, being rooms of only 11 ft. 4 in. by 8 ft. 6 in., with common bath and toilet facilities.

It seems from this statement that a licensee erected a building on Government land, subsequently discontinued its use of the building and presumably abandoned it—at least it does not affirmatively appear that the licensee transferred title to the building to any one either with or without the consent of the Government; and that certain officers formed a mutual association and took possession of the building, made repairs thereto, and operated it for their purposes and for profit.

By whose permission or authority they were permitted to take possession of the building, as against the Government's right thereto upon abandonment by the licensee, does not appear; nor is their authority or permission to maintain a building on Government land shown.

On the facts now presented the mutual association of officers has no right, title, or interest in the building as against the Government. That being true quarters in that building are public quarters, and an officer occupying such quarters is occupying public quarters within the meaning of the laws permitting commutation where public quarters are not available, whether he entered by permission of and

on conditions fixed by a mutual association having physical possession of the building, or by assignment thereto by the commanding officer.

Subparagraph a of paragraph 1, War Department Circular No. 225, dated June 26, 1920, is in part as follows:

Section IV, General Orders, No. 109, War Department, 1919 (Education and recreation of the soldier), in providing and outlining the various means for recreation of the soldier, provides for the establishment of "Service Clubs." It is the desire of the War Department that these clubs furnish to the entire service the most desirable features of club life. In so far as military necessity will permit, they should be operated along lines of clubs common to civil life, and the personnel being served by a particular clubhouse should be given active participation in its operation and management. Those charged with the operation of clubs within a given post, camp, or station should see that the needs of the entire command, including officers, enlisted men, and civilians permanently on duty, are considered.

Paragraphs 1 and 2 of War Department Circular No. 483, dated October 21, 1919, are as follows:

1. In accordance with the policy of the War Department, as outlined in Section IV, General Orders, No. 109, War Department, 1919, and subsequent instructions, the activities of the seven affiliated organizations at all posts, camps, and stations within the continental limits of the United States, will be taken over by, and become the responsibility of the Army, November 1, 1919. At each post, camp, and station the responsibility rests with the commanding officer, and will be discharged through the education and recreation officer on his staff.

2. All club features, for both officers and enlisted men, heretofore supplied by the affiliated organizations become the responsibility of the "Service Clubs." Duties of the various secretaries and their assistants will now-under direction of the post, camp, or station commander-be done by officers, enlisted men, and such civilian personnel as are deemed necessary and funds available will provide.

It would also seem from these quotations that the Officers' Club at Camp Knox is identical in origin with hostess houses and service clubs generally.

It is observed that claim is made as for dependents while the officer is on field duty, pursuant to the provisions of Paragraph VII, General Orders No. 57 of 1921.

Subparagraph 2 thereof is in part as follows:

*

2. Under the provisions of the act of Congress approved April 16, 1918, as amended by the act of Congress approved May 18, 1920, authorizing payment of commutation of quarters, heat, and light to certain officers and enlisted men on account of the maintenance of an abode for wife, child, or dependent parent, the expression "on duty in the field" shall have application to all duty in the United States or in its insular possessions at camps and cantonments (except at permanent posts or forts), where public quarters are not available for the occupancy of the families or dependents of officers at such stations.

"Permanent posts and forts," as used in the foregoing sentence, will be considered to mean all those military stations of permanent construction which existed prior to the World War and all additional military stations which have been announced as permanent posts in the War Department orders issued since the World War, or which may hereafter be so announced.

The term "public quarters," as used above, will not only include the buildings of permanent construction which existed at all permanent posts prior to the World War, but will include all buildings of temporary or semipermanent construction at camps and cantonments which have been or may be in future, so remodeled or converted as to provide suitable quarters for officers.

Apparently Camp Knox has not yet been announced as a permanent post by the War Department. It is noted that the act of February 28, 1920, 41 Stat., 454, under the heading "Field Artillery," provides:

To complete Field Artillery training centers:

At Camp Knox, Kentucky: For the purchase of real estate, $811,338: Provided, That no land shall be purchased west of the Illinois Central Railroad tracks and north of the Tip Top-Grayhampton Road; for general construction work, $50,000; for completion of the Dixie Highway, $100,000; for plumbing, heating, and refrigeration, $25,000; total for Camp Knox, $986,338: Provided, That no part of the unexpended balances of appropriations heretofore made for the support of the Army shall be expended for construction at Camp Taylor, Kentucky, and the Secretary of War is hereby directed to sell the real estate and buildings of said camp to the best advantage of the Government, whenever conditions are such that Camp Knox is prepared to take over the Field Artillery School now being conducted at Camp Taylor, Kentucky, and in no event later than June 30, 1921, the proceeds of such sale to be covered into the Treasury to the credit of miscellaneous receipts.

The act of June 5, 1920, 41 Stat., 950, appropriates funds for the fiscal year 1921, under "United States Service Schools" and "Field Artillery activities" for the Field Artillery School at Camp Knox.

Funds for that purpose for the fiscal year 1922 are appropriated in the Army appropriation act of June 30, 1921, 42 Stat., 70, the provision for Field Artillery Schools being as follows:

For the purchase of textbooks, books of reference, scientific and professional papers, instruments, and material for instruction; employment of temporary, technical, or special services, including the services of one translator at the rate of $150 per month; and for other necessary expenses of instruction, at the Field Artillery Schools at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Camp Knox, Kentucky, and Camp Bragg, North Carolina, $35,000.

War Department Circular 377, dated July 31, 1919, provides, paragraphs 2 and 3:

2. These tables prescribe the basic allowances of individual equipment, and of organization equipment not usually issued to individuals, for all units serving at posts, or at camps and stations of a relatively permanent nature and on field duty. Allowances of special equipment pertaining to each organization will be published in subsequent circulars.

3. Equipment A is taken into the field in campaign_on_the person or in the transportation normally allowed the organization. Equipment B is additional, furnished at posts, and at camps or stations of a relatively permanent

nature.

Paragraph 2 of War Department Circular 10 of 1920, provides— 2. For the purpose of issue of equipment all cantonments in the United States where at present there are stationed units of the Regular Army will be considered to be of a relatively permanent nature.

While it was said by the former Comptroller of the Treasury that the determination of what constitutes "duty in the field," under the act of April 16, 1918, was a military question for the Secretary of War, I think that the question, at least since the termination of the war, may be determined by reference to the statutes generally and the action of the War Department under particular statutes, although the opinion of the War Department whether a given service is or is not duty in the field is entitled to great weight. However, when Congress appropriates funds for the purchase of land for the further extension

of a camp created during the war, and continuously occupied by Regular Army troops since the ending of the war, when a service school is regularly conducted there and funds for its maintenance are annually appropriated and when the War Department itself has denominated the camp semipermanent, and authorized the issuance of equipment to the personnel thereof as not "on field duty," it must be concluded that service there is not field duty in the ordinary and usual sense and that it may not be called duty in the field for the purpose of commutation of quarters for dependents under the act of April 16, 1918.

Accordingly, I am of opinion that Lieut. Hauseman is not entitled to commutation of quarters under the acts of March 2, 1907, 34 Stat., 1169, and March 4, 1915, 38 Stat., 1069, because he occupied public quarters; nor for his dependents under the act of April 16, 1918, because he was not on duty in the field within the meaning of that act.

MEDICAL TREATMENT-ARMY.

Reimbursement is not authorized to Army personnel for civilian medical and hospital treatment for injuries sustained while voluntarily away from their posts of duty under oral or implied general permission, when the duration of the absence and the distance to which permitted to go negative the possibility of performance of duty.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Secretary of War, February 18, 1922:

I have your letter of February 2, 1922, requesting decision whether the hospital expenses of Lieuts. George C. Tinsley and Harold A. Packard, Air Service, United States Army, who were injured in an automobile accident near Kissimmee, Florida, while absent from their proper station under oral or implied general permission are properly payable under the appropriation "Medical and Hospital Department, 1922," 42 Stat., 87. Vouchers, or a statement of the expenses involved, are not presented, and the only question for consideration is whether on the facts presented the appropriation named is available.

It is stated that on and prior to Saturday, July 2, 1921, these officers were on duty at the Air Service Pilot School, Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Fla.; that at 4 p. m. on that date, having completed their duties for the day and having no further duties to perform before 7.30 a. m., Tuesday, July 5, 1921, they left Carlstrom Field in an automobile, the property of one or both of the officers, and proceeded to Bartow and from there toward Kissimmee; that at a point about 8 miles south of Kissimmee and at about 8 o'clock p. m. Saturday while traveling at about 25 miles per hour the automobile "hit a gentle rise in the road and returned to the road without mishap, but that there were several recurring waves in the road which could not be seen but which caused the car to vibrate longitudinally to such an extent as to cause the front wheels to leave the ground, and that