year's satisfactory service in each grade to the next higher grade until they reach the fifth grade. All promotions shall be made at the beginning of the quarter following one year's satisfactory service in the grade:

By section 6 of the act of June 19, 1922, 42 Stat., 662, the provision just quoted was made applicable to postal employees and substitute postal employees who were in the Postal Service on October 1, 1920.

The apparent purpose of the provision under consideration was to place employees who were in the military service during the late war and thereafter entered or reentered the Postal Service on an equal footing as to promotion with employees who were in the Postal Service rather than the military service during the war. With this in view it was but reasonable that the law should provide that the benefits of its provisions should be extended only to employees who entered or reentered the Postal Service within a reasonable time after discharge from the military service. Originally the date for such entry or reentry was fixed as June 5, 1920, and thereafter extended to October 1, 1920. It is reasonable to assume that the object of the provision was to induce former postal employees and persons who had prepared or planned to enter the Postal Service to enter or reenter said service upon being discharged from the military service and to remain continuously therein.

It has been held that an employee who resigned from the Postal Service in May, 1920, and was reinstated in May, 1921, was not entitled to the benefits of the provisions. 1 Comp. Gen., 724. It would not be reasonable to assume that the law contemplated extending the benefits to an employee who delayed entering or reentering the Postal Service until October 1, 1920, and who was thereafter separated from the service and reinstated, while denying said benefits to an employee who entered or reentered the Postal Service soon after the armistice and who was separated from the service prior to June 5, 1920, and reinstated subsequent to October 1, 1920.

It is understood from your submission that the Post Office Department has construed the provision as being applicable only to those employees who were in the Postal Service as regular or substitute on June 5, 1920, or October 1, 1920, and who have remained continuously in said service thereafter. That construction appears to be in accordance with the intent and purpose of the statute. The question submitted is answered in the negative.

PERSONAL FURNISHINGS HANDCUFFS.

Handcuffs to be used by officers of the customs service to facilitate the handling of prisoners are not personal furnishings with which the officers are required to equip themselves at their own expense, and the cost thereof is payable from the appropriation for collecting the revenue from customs and the detection and prevention of frauds upon the customs revenue,

Decision by Comptroller General McCarl, February 8, 1923:

The Secretary of the Treasury requested, January 6, 1923, review of settlement No. T-10985, dated December 19, 1922, wherein credit for $18 was disallowed in the accounts of M. B. McFarlane, collector of customs, district No. 18, Tampa, Fla., on account of payment made to the Mattatuck Manufacturing Company, of Waterbury, Conn., for six pairs of Mattatuck handcuffs at $3 per pair.

The payment in question was made from the appropriation "Collecting the revenue from customs, 1922," and it was disallowed for the reason that the handcuffs were personal equipment of the employees, and therefore not a proper charge against the Government. The act of February 17, 1922, 42 Stat., 373, making appropriation for the operation and maintenance of the customs service, is as follows:

For collecting the revenue from customs, including not exceeding $200,000 for the detection and prevention of frauds upon the custoins revenue, $11,300,000. With regard to the purchase of handcuffs, the Secretary of the Treasury stated in his letter of January 6, 1923, as follows:

Handcuffs are a mechanical device which, fastened to the wrists of prisoners, render them incapable of effectively resisting an officer. By their use one officer can control one or more prisoners, whereas without their use it would require several officers to control one prisoner should he be disposed to exert his strength in an effort to escape.

In the customs service it frequently becomes necessary to place a number of prisoners in charge of one officer in transferring them to a place of detention and this can be safely done with the use of handcuffs. To illustrate: A force of customs officers captures a gang of smugglers and the prisoners must be taken to a place of detention. The prisoners are handcuffed and one or two officers, depending upon the number of prisoners, transfers them to a place of safe keeping, while the remainder of the customs force stays on duty. Without the use of handcuffs it would be necessary for the entire squad of customs officers to accompany the prisoners, thus leaving the border or port wide open and the revenue unprotected.

From the foregoing statements it would seem that the handcuffs were purchased as a part of the necessary equipment incident to the collection of the customs revenue and the detection and prevention of frauds; that they were for general use, not strictly personal furnishings with which an officer would be required to equip himself for the proper performance of his duties. The expenses incident to arresting violators of the customs laws and the necessary expenses incident to delivering such prisoners to a place of detention are properly chargeable to the appropriation hereinabove quoted, and the purchase of these mechanical devices, designed to facilitate the handling of such prisoners, would likewise appear to be a proper charge against the same appropriation.

Upon review of the matter the settlement is reversed and $18 is certified for credit in the account of Collector M. B. McFarlane.

TRANSFER OF UNEXPENDED APPROPRIATIONS FOR BUREAU OF CUSTOMS STATISTICS.

The authority in the act of January 5, 1923, 42 Stat., 1109, for the transfer of all of the unexpended appropriations or allotments from appropriations for the Bureau of Customs Statistics from the Treasury Department to the Department of Commerce is applicable to the appropriations made by the act of January 3, 1923, 42 Stat., 1094, for both fiscal years 1923 and 1924, as well as funds previously appropriated.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Secretary of the Treasury, February 8, 1923:

I have your letter of February 5, 1923, requesting decision whether, under the provisions of the act of January 5, 1923, transferring the Bureau of Customs Statistics from the Treasury Department to the Department of Commerce and providing for the transfer of appropriations in connection therewith, there is authority to make a transfer of appropriations for the fiscal year 1923 and also for the fiscal year 1924.

The authority to make transfer of appropriations appears in the act of January 5, 1923, 42 Stat., 1109, and is as follows:

All of the unexpended appropriations or allotments from appropriations available for the maintenance and expense of operation of the said Bureau of Customs Statistics are, from the time when this Act takes effect, deducted from the appropriation of the Department of the Treasury for collecting revenue from customs and transferred to the appropriation for the Department of Commerce, to be available for the current fiscal year from the time of such transfer for expenditure in the District of Columbia or elsewhere, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce, for personal services, rental, or purchase of mechanical, tabulating, duplicating, and other office machinery, devices, furniture, and supplies, including their exchange or repair; subistence, traveling and transportation expenses of employees for official purposes; telegraph, telephone, and all other contingent expenses not specifically included in the foregoing.

It appears that at the time of the passage of this enactment appropriations had been made for the fiscal year 1923, which ends June 30, 1923, and that included in such appropriations were the sums necessary for the operation of the Bureau of Customs Statistics. There is no question that the proper amounts under that appropriation may be transferred to the Department of Commerce. The question more particularly of concern is whether there is also authorized to be transferred such portion of the appropriation which was made January 3, 1923, to the Treasury Department and wherein was included for the fiscal year 1924 appropriation provision for the Bureau of Custom Statistics. There appears in the appropriation of January 3, 1923, 42 Stat., 1094, the following provision:

For collecting the revenue from customs, including not exceeding $300,000 for the detection and prevention of frauds upon the customs revenue. $12,100,000, of which $350,000 shall be immediately available, and $35,000 of the $12,100,000 to be available for expenditure in the District of Columbia in addition to the sums herein and heretofore authorized: Provided, That no person shall be paid at a rate in excess of $3,000 per annum and not more than four persons may be paid at a rate of $3,000 per annum each from the said sum of $35,000.

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It is observed that in this appropriation provision is made making $350,000 immediately available. It is understood that the appropriation generally included provision for the Bureau of Customs Statistics as under the Treasury Department and if the sums therein provided for for the fiscal year 1924 are not now transferred to the Department of Commerce they will remain in that appropriation and it will be necessary for the Department of Commerce to obtain a deficiency appropriation for the fiscal year 1924.

The clear intent of Congress in the provision of the act of January 5, 1923, was to direct the transfer to the Department of Commerce from the appropriations for the Treasury Department in so far as they have made provision for the Bureau of Customs Statistics and the provision therein "to be available for the current fiscal year from the time of such transfer" may be understood as a segregation of such appropriations respectively so that those for the fiscal year 1923 should only be available for the fiscal year 1923 and those for any other fiscal year, to wit, the fiscal year 1924, should be available only for the fiscal year 1924. The appropriations having been made at the time of the enactment in question there would appear to be no reason why the intent should not be carried out that appropriations for the Treasury Department for the operation of the Bureau of Customs Statistics should be available for the Department of Commerce and the necessary transfers for the fiscal years 1923 and 1924, respectively, are authorized to be made accordingly.

BURIAL OF AMERICAN CONVICTS IN CHINA.

The appropriation for expenses of prisons for American convicts at Shanghai, China, may be used for the burial expenses of prisoners dying in the Shanghai prison if no other means are available.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Secretary of State, February 9, 1923: I have your letter dated January 18, 1923, in which, referring to decision dated November 28, 1922, to the effect that the burial expenses of Thomas G. Furlong, formerly an inmate of the Shanghai jail, which were paid from the relief fund maintained in Shanghai from voluntary contributions, could not be reimbursed from the appropriation "Expenses of prisons for American convicts," you express the desire to be informed whether the expenses of burial in future cases may be paid direct from the appropriation in question, inasmuch as a condition may arise at a future date in which a prisoner detained in the Shanghai jail may die, and if no funds are available for the burial expenses the consulate general may be embarrassed. It is also suggested that if the appropriation in its existing form should be decided not to be available, it would seem

incumbent upon that department to request a change in the language of the appropriation.

The appropriation in terms is simply, "For expenses of maintaining at Shanghai under charge of the United States marshal for China, an institute for incarcerating American convicts and insane in China, $2,000."

The very restricted purpose comprised in just the authorized maintenance of that institution when considered in connection with the comparatively small amount appropriated to that use, makes it doubtful whether there may be implied an authority for an expenditure for such a purpose as the one in question. Whether the use of the appropriation would be proper in the event of some emergency condition of the kind contemplated would depend upon the particular circumstances of a specific case. Where a man dies in a domestic jail, under pauper conditions, interment usually falls upon the local public authorities. In a foreign locality, if there are no provisions for interment of deceased pauper prisoners of United States jails, it appears that since such inmates are wholly dependent upon their custodians there would be an obligation resting upon the local United States authorities to dispose of the bodies of their nationals, and if there are no other means available, the appropriation "Expenses of prisons for American convicts" would be the fund that must bear the burden of such expense and be authorized under the conditions cited.

INCREASE OF COMPENSATION TO PER HOUR AND PER DIEM EMPLOYEES.

Per hour or per diem employees who are paid for week days only may be paid the increase of compensation for civilian employees, if otherwise entitled thereto, at the rate of 763 cents per day; if they are paid for every day, the rate is 663 per day.

Per hour employees, ordinarily paid for week days only, are not entitled to any increase of compensation for Sunday work, the 763 cents per day paid for week days being the total increase to which they are entitled.

Acting Comptroller General Ginn to the Librarian of Congress, February 12, 1923:

I have your letter of February 1, 1923, requesting decision at what rate hour workers in the Library should be paid increase of compensation.

If hourly or per diem employees are paid for week days only the rate or increase of compensation is 763 cents per day. If they are paid for every day the rate of compensation is 663 cents per day. See 25 Comp. Dec., 71, 73. If hour workers, ordinarily paid for week days only, also work on Sundays they are not entitled to increase of compensation for the Sunday work, since the 763 cents per day for week days is all the increase of compensation to which they are entitled. See 25 Comp. Dec. 417.