one consignor destined to one consignee and loaded in one car, for which service the maximum charge is $400, the minimum charge for a carload. There appears to be no merit in the claim for $303.09 additional because two bills of lading instead of one were issued for the service. The company has received the full amount to which it is entitled for the service rendered and the action in disallowing the claim for additional allowance is sustained.

RENTAL ALLOWANCE-NAVAL RESERVE FORCE-SEA DUTY FOR TRAINING.

An officer of the Naval Reserve Force ordered to duty for training on a ship afloat who performs duty thereon incident thereto, wears the uniform, is subject to the regulations and to the orders of the commanding officer thereof, and is quartered and messed on board, is on sea duty," and is entitled to a rental allowance if he have a dependent or dependents for whom public quarters are not available.

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Decision by Comptroller General McCarl, March 13, 1923:

The Chief of the Navy Department Division submitted for decision the question whether Lieut. (J. G.) Frank Lawrence Buckley, United States Naval Reserve Force, is entitled to rental allowance provided in section 6 of the act of June 10, 1922, 42 Stat., 628, while on active duty for training on board the U. S. S. Eagle 56, during the period August 22 to September 5, 1922.

The act of August 29, 1916, 39 Stat., 587, which established the present United States Naval Reserve Force, contains the following provisions relative to training duty:

When first enrolled members of the Naval Reserve Force, except those in the Fleet Naval Reserve, shall be given a provisional grade, rank or rating in accordance with their qualifications determined by examination. They may thereafter, upon application, be assigned to active service in the Navy for such periods of instruction and training as may enable them to qualify for and be confirmed in such grade, rank or rating.

Members of the Naval Reserve Force who reenroll for a term of four years within four months from the date of the termination of their last term of enrollment, and who shall have performed the minimum amount of active service required during the preceding term of enrollment, shall, for each such reenrollment, receive an increase of twenty-five per centum of their base retainer pay: Provided, That enrolled members who shall have completed twenty years of service in the Naval Reserve Force, and who shall have performed the minimum amount of active service required in their class for maintaining efficiency during each term of enrollment, shall, upon their own application, be retired

Enrolled members of the Naval Reserve Force shall be subject to the laws, regulations, and orders for the government of the Regular Navy only during such time as they may by law be required to serve in the Navy, in accordance with their obligations, and when on active service at their own request as herein provided, and when employed in authorized travel to and from such active service in the Navy

Members of the Naval Reserve Force shall, upon first reporting for active service for training during each period of enrollment, be credited with a uniform gratuity

FLEET NAVAL RESERVE.

The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to assign any member of the Fleet Naval Reserve to active duty for training on board ship, upon the application of such member, but any member who has failed to perform three months' active service with the Navy in any term of enrollment shall, on the next reenrollment, receive retainer pay at the rate of $12 per annum until such time as he shall have completed three months' active service. The three months' active service with the Navy may be taken in one or more periods, at the election of the member:

NAVAL RESERVE.

The minimum active service required of members to qualify for confirmation in their rank or rating in this class shall be three months.

The minimum active service required for maintaining the efficiency of a member of this class is three months during each term of enrollment. This active service may be in one period or in periods of not less than three weeks each year.

NAVAL AUXILIARY RESERVE.

The requirement as to qualifications of officers and men for confirmation in rank or rating, and as to the maintenance of efficiency in rank or rating, shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Navy

*

NAVAL COAST DEFENSE RESERVE.

*

The amount of active service required for confirmation in rank and rating and for maintaining efficiency in rank and rating shall be the same as that required for members of the Naval Reserve.

NAVAL RESERVE FLYING CORPS.

The amount of active service required for confirmation in grade, rank, or rating, and for maintaining efficiency therein, shall be the same as that required for members of the Naval Reserve.

It will thus be noted that in addition to the active service required “in time of war or during the existence of a national emergency" there is an active service "for training" prescribed for members of the Naval Reserve Force and that this active service "for training" is of two kinds, viz, (1) to establish qualification for confirmation in rank or rating, and (2) to maintain efficiency after confirmation has been acquired. For these classes of duty the act of August 29, 1916, provided:

All members of the Naval Reserve Force shall, when actively employed as set forth in this Act, be entitled to the same pay, allowances, gratuities, and other emoluments as officers and enlisted men of the naval service on active duty of corresponding rank or rating and of the same length of service.

The act of July 1, 1918, 40 Stat., 710, amended the act of August 29, 1916, as to the period of service for maintaining efficiency, by · providing

That the minimum active service required for maintaining the efficiency of a member of the Naval Reserve shall be two months during each term of enrollment and an attendance at not less than thirty-six drills during each year, or other equivalent duty. The active service may be in one period or in periods of not less than fifteen days each.

and to provide pay and allowances for the various classes of active duty provided:

Members of the Naval Reserve Force when employed in active service, ashore or afloat, under the Navy Department shall receive the same pay and allowances as received by the officers and enlisted men of the Regular Navy of the same length of service

See also act June 4, 1920, 41 Stat., 837.

Section 3 of the act of June 10, 1922, prescribing the base rates of pay for commissioned officers of the Naval Reserve Force, breaks the assimilation theretofore existent with the pay of officers of the regular Navy" of the same rank and of the same length of service," but the assimilation is not broken in the pay of warrant officers. No provision is incorporated in the act of June 1, 1922, however, as to the character of service which is to entitle officers of the Naval Reserve Force to pay from the Government for active service, section 3 simply providing the base pay which shall be allowed commissioned officers when "authorized by law to receive Federal pay." Prior laws must accordingly be taken into consideration to determine what character of service does authorize Federal pay to officers of the Naval Reserve Force.

Section 1571 of the Revised Statutes provides:

No service shall be regarded as sea service except such as shall be performed at sea, under the orders of a Department and in vessels employed by authority of law.

An officer assigned to duty ashore may or may not be on “field duty," but when he is ordered to duty on a ship afloat, and performs duty thereon incident thereto, wears the uniform, is subject to the regulations and to the orders of the commanding officer thereof, and is quartered and messed aboard, his duty is established as "sea duty." See United States v. Symonds, 120 U. S., 46; United States v. Bishop, 120 id., 51; United States v. Strong, 125 id., 656; United States v. Barnette, 165 id., 174; United States v. Thomas, 195 id., 426.

Active service for training to maintain efficiency is active service for which an officer of the Naval Reserve Force is entitled to Federal pay, and when that service is actually performed aboard ship and the officer fulfills the requirements to constitute the duty "sea duty" he is entitled to the pay and allowances authorized for that class of duty.

In the matter of the rental allowance, section 6 of the act of June 10, 1922, 42 Stat., 628, provides:

That each commissioned officer on the active list or on active duty below the grade of brigadier general or its equivalent, in any of the services mentioned in the title of this Act, if public quarters are not available, shall be entitled at all times, in addition to his pay, to a money allowance for rental of quarters, the amount of such allowance to be determined by the rate for one room Such rate for one room is hereby fixed at $20 per month for the fiscal year 1923 * * The rental allowance shall accrue while the officer is on • sea duty * regardless of any shelter that may be furnished him for his personal use, if his dependent or dependents are not occupying public quarters during such period. no rental allowance shall be made

to any officer without dependents by reason of his employment on sea duty.

Section 14 of the act of June 10, 1922, 42 Stat., 631, provides, in part:

reserve officers of any of the services mentioned in the title of this Act while on active duty shall receive the allowances herein prescribed for officers of the regular services in sections 5 and 6 of this Act.

*

The act of March 4, 1923, 42 Stat., 1507, entitled "An act to extend the benefits of section 14 of the pay readjustment act of June 10, 1922, to validate certain payments made to National Guard and reserve officers and warrant officers, and for other purposes," in section 1, provides:

That reserve officers and reserve warrant officers of any of the services mentioned in the title of the pay readjustment act of June 10, 1922, while on active duty, including duty for training purposes, shall receive the allowances prescribed for officers and warrant officers of the regular services under sections 5, 6, and 11 of the said pay act.

These enactments and what has been stated justify the conclusion that an officer of the Naval Reserve Force, with a proven dependent mother for whom public quarters are not available as evidenced by a proper certificate, is entitled to the rental allowance while on actual sea duty" for training to maintain efficiency, it being active duty.

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VOCATIONAL TRAINING.

An applicant for vocational training under section 3 of the act of June 27, 1918, 40 Stat., 618, who is unable to begin his training within the time limit prescribed by the act of March 4, 1921, 41 Stat., 1379, owing to financial difficulties or other good cause, is not precluded from the benefits of training under section 2 of said act of June 27, 1918, if his disability is subsequently found such as to bring him within its terms. Comptroller General McCarl to the Director, United States Veterans' Bureau, March 14, 1923:

I have your letter of February 16, 1923, requesting decision whether the Veterans' Bureau is authorized to provide vocational training under section 2 of the vocational rehabilitation act of June 27, 1918, 40 Stat., 617, to applicants who now meet the requirements of that section, but who failed to commence training under section 3 of the act, 40 Stat., 618, within the statutory time limit after qualifying under that section and being notified to begin training thereunder.

Vocational training under section 2 of the act carries with it a maintenance allowance to the trainee. Training under section 3 does not carry such allowance. The cases to which you refer are those in which applicants admitted to training under section 3 were unable to pursue the prescribed courses on account of their inability to support themselves while undergoing training, and therefore have been compelled to let the period of limitation in which training must be commenced expire. Later increase of disability is such as to meet the requirement of section 2, and it is proposed to admit the applicant to training under that section.

The act of March 4, 1921, 41 Stat., 1379, provides:

Provided further, That no person who has been declared eligible for training under the provisions of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, for whom training has been prescribed, and who has been notified by the board to begin training shall be eligible to the benefits of said Act in the event of his failure to commence training within a reasonable time after notice has been sent such person by the board: Provided further, That except when such failure is due, in the opinion of the board to physical incapacity, such time shall not be longer than twelve months after the passage of this Act for persons already declared eligible and notified to begin training, and twelve months after notice is given for persons hereafter declared eligible and notified to begin training.

The evident purpose and intent of this provision is to require of applicants for vocational training reasonable promptness in accepting and entering upon the course of training for which they have been found eligible and to which they have been admitted by the bureau. An applicant for the benefit of section 2 of the act is not necessarily required to accept the benefit of section 3 in order to preserve his future right under section 2. While the course of training under each of the two sections may be the same the conditions under which they are to be pursued are different, and an insurmountable obstacle to training under the one section is removed by admission to training under the other.

The spirit of the law does not require that an applicant shall forfeit his right to training under section 2 by failing to accept training under section 3 from which he was barred by financial deficiencies or other good cause shown, and not by mere disinclination and refusal or neglect to accept the benefit of training allowed under section 3.

CONSTRUCTIVE SERVICE-COUNTING OF FOR LONGEVITY PAYENLISTED MEN OF NAVY.

The period intervening between the date of discharge and the date of the expiration of the term for which enlisted can not be counted as "enlisted service" for the purpose of computing the longevity pay to which enlisted men of the Navy are entitled under section 10 of the act of June 10, 1922, 42 Stat., 630.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Secretary of the Navy, March 15, 1923: I have your letter of February 23, 1923, requesting decision whether the period intervening between the date of actual discharge