sons whom you may employ on such occasions should be "volunteers" and the compensation paid to them should be limited to the rate of "not to exceed $10 for each volunteer." (See sec. 6, act of June 20, 1874, 18 Stat., 127, as amended by sec. 10, act of June 18, 1878, 20 Stat., 165; act of June 20, 1878, 20 Stat., 212, appropriating for volunteers for the fiscal year 1879, and each subsequent annual appropriation therefor to and including that for the current year in act of Aug. 1, 1914, 38 Stat., 619; secs. 2 and 3, act of Jan. 28, 1915, 38 Stat., 801, 802; act of Mar. 3, 1915, 38 Stat., 833, appropriating for Coast Guard, item "For compensation for special services, $64,000.")

4. They would be injured in the line of duty within the meaning of those statutes.

5. Keepers are, pursuant to statute, appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, receive an annual compensation fixed by statute, and are required by statute to "reside continually at or in the immediate vicinity of their respective stations." (Acts of May 4, 1882, 22 Stat., 57; Mar. 26, 1908, 35 Stat., 46; June 18, 1878, sec. 4, 20 Stat., 164.) There is no statute expressly authorizing the employment or payment of a substitute for a keeper or an acting keeper. In the Life-Saving Service provision was made by regulation for the granting of 30 days' leave with pay to a keeper in the inactive season, providing he left a suitable man in charge of the station during his absence without expense to the Government, preference to be given by him to a regular member of the crew. (Sec. 201, Amended Regulations of Life-Saving Service.)

The positions, operations, duties, and pay of surfmen of the Coast Guard remain in all respects as they were in the Life-Saving Service, unless necessarily modified by the provisions of the act of January 28, 1915 (38 Stat., 800), creating the Coast Guard by combining the Life-Saving and Revenue-Cutter Services.

The need for a responsible man to be placed on duty at a station during the inactive season to take the place of the keeper during his absence from the station appears not to be a need arising out of or imposed by the combination of the two services into the Coast Guard, but one which existed to an equal extent prior to the combination and is unaffected thereby.

The duty of taking the place of the keeper during his absence from the station in the inactive season was not one of the authorized duties of a surfman in the Life-Saving Service in his capacity as a surfman, and therefore not one of the duties of such position transferred to the Coast Guard, nor is it a duty created by the combining of the two services into the Coast Guard.

Surfmen could not, therefore, be placed on such duty and paid as surfmen for reasons similar to those stated in the decision of

the 4th ultimo, and a regulation to the effect that they should be so placed and paid could not legally be prescribed.

The contention that the duties of a keeper are continuous during the year and that with reference thereto there is no active and inactive season, and that therefore a surfman detailed to perform the duties of a keeper during the inactive season would be in the performance of duties provided for by law, can not be sustained, because a surfman could not be detailed to perform the duties of a keeper unless there was first authority to require active duty of him during the inactive season, and there is no such power except as to emergency service in case of wrecks, etc. Service required implies always an obligation to pay, and the right to pay a surfman as a surfman is limited to the active season and to such emergency service as may be required. A surfman detailed as an acting keeper is still a surfman, and if he can not be on active duty as a surfman, the necessary foundation for a detail as acting keeper is lacking.

FOREIGN-SERVICE PAY, UNITED STATES ARMY.

Officers of the Army detailed as junior military aviators or military aviators are entitled to compute their foreign-service pay on the pay of the higher rank they hold while so detailed. They are not entitled to compute foreignservice pay on the 50 per cent or 75 per cent increase of pay authorized while on duty requiring them to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights.

Officers of the Army detailed as aviation students are not entitled to compute foreign-service pay on the 25 per cent increase of pay authorized while on duty requiring them to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights. Enlisted men of the Army holding the rating of aviation mechanician are entitled to have foreign-service pay computed on the pay authorized for said rating.

Enlisted men of the Army detailed on aviation duty are not entitled to have foreign-service pay computed on the 50 per cent increase of pay authorized while on duty requiring them to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights.

Comptroller Downey to the Secretary of War, June 10, 1915:

I have received your request for decision of the question presented in the following letter of the Quartermaster General dated June 7, 1915:

"1. Referring to decisions of the Comptroller of the Treasury of May 19, 1914, and June 4, 1915, concerning the payment of foreignservice increase of pay, it is requested that this paper be forwarded, by authority of the Secretary of War, to the Comptroller, requesting a decision whether foreign-service increase of pay is payable—

"(a) On the 35 per cent increase provided by the act of March 3, 1913 (37 Stat., 705), which reads:

"That from and after the passage and approval of this act the pay and allowances that are now or may be hereafter fixed by law for officers of the Regular Army shall be increased thirty-five per centum

for such officers as are now or may be hereafter detailed by the Secretary of War on aviation duty: Provided, That this increase of pay and allowances shall be given to such officers only as are actual flyers of heavier-than-air craft, and while so detailed: Provided further, That no more than thirty officers shall be detailed to the aviation service.'

666

* * *

"(b) On the 25 per cent, 50 per cent, and 75 per cent increases provided for officers, and the 50 per cent increase provided for enlisted men by section 3, act of July 18, 1914 (38 Stat., 515-516) which reads: ** * Each aviation student authorized by this act shall, while on duty that requires him to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights, receive an increase of 25 per centum in the pay of his grade and length of service under his line commission. Each duly qualified junior military aviator shall, while so serving, have the rank, pay, and allowances of one grade higher than that held by him under his line commission, provided that his rank under said commission be not higher than that of first lieutenant, and, while on duty, requiring him to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights, he shall receive in addition an increase of 50 per centum in the pay of his grade and length of service under his line commission. The rating of military aviator shall not be hereafter conferred upon or held by any person except as hereinafter provided, and the number of officers with that rating shall at no time exceed fifteen. Each military aviator who shall hereafter have duly qualified as such under the provisions of this act shall, while so serving, have the rank, pay, and allowances of one grade higher than that held by him under his line commission, provided that his rank under said commission be not higher than that of first lieutenant, and, while on duty requiring him to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights, he shall receive in addition an increase of 75 per centum of the pay of his grade and length of service under his line commission.

"The aviation-enlisted men hereinbefore provided for shall consist of twelve master signal electricians, twelve first-class sergeants, twenty-four sergeants, seventy-eight corporals, eight cooks, eightytwo first-class privates, and forty-four privates. Not to exceed forty of said enlisted men shall at any one time have the rating of aviation mechanician, which rating is hereby established, and said rating shall not be conferred upon any person except as hereinafter provided: Provided, That twelve enlisted men at a time shall, in the discretion of the officer in command of the aviation section, be instructed in the art of flying, and no enlisted man shall be assigned to duty as an aerial flyer against his will except in time of war. Each aviationenlisted man, while on duty that requires him to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights, or while holding the rating of aviation mechanician, shall receive an increase of fifty per centum in his pay.'"

* * *

Under the provisions of this act of March 3, 1913, the increase of pay and allowances is given to the detailed officers only "while so detailed." Such a method for fixing increased pay while performing special duty does not make it a part of the pay proper, which is increased 10 per cent for foreign service under the act of March 3, 1901 (31 Stat., 1108). See 21 Comp. Dec., 811.

Under the act of July 18, 1914, an aviation student may remain attached to the aviation section for not exceeding one year to determine his fitness or unfitness for detail as an aviation officer, and while on duty that requires him "to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights" is entitled to an increase of 25 per cent in the pay of his grade and length of service under his line commission. This increase is for the performance of a special duty and is not pay proper within the meaning of the law granting the 10 per cent increase for foreign service.

Under the same act of 1914 junior military aviators and military aviators are to be detailed to serve as aviation officers for a period of four years unless sooner relieved; are to have the rank, pay, and allowances of one grade higher than that held under their line commissions; and while on duty requiring them "to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights" they receive, in addition, an increase of 50 per cent or 75 per cent in the pay of their grade and length of service under their line commissions. The pay proper of such officers is the pay of the higher rank they hold and foreignservice increase should be computed upon such pay and increase for length of service, but not upon the 50 per cent or 75 per cent increase on the pay of the grade and length of service under line commission. Such 50 per cent or 75 per cent increase is not computed on the rank they hold, is for the performance of a special duty, and is not pay proper within the meaning of the law relating to 10 per cent increase for foreign service.

The rating of aviation mechanician created for enlisted men by the act of July 18, 1914, is a new rating. An enlisted man holding this rating is entitled to 50 per cent increased pay. There is no limit to the period of service in this rating and the pay so increased is pay proper of the rating on which the 20 per cent foreign-service increase for enlisted men is to be computed.

The 50 per cent additional pay provided for aviation enlisted men "while on duty that requires them to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights" is additional pay for the performance of special duty and is not a part of the pay proper within the meaning of the law allowing 20 per cent increase for foreign service.

TRAVELING EXPENSES.

An employment resting entirely upon authority of an annual lump-sum appropriation which has been discontinued can not extend beyond the end of the fiscal year for which the appropriation was made; but, if the employee has traveled under due authority away from official station during the life of the appropriation, the expense of the return trip after the close of the year and the termination of the employment is a just and lawful charge against the United States, payment of which may be made 2216°-VOL 21--15-55

from another appropriation for necessary and contingent expenses of the service in which the employment was originally made.

Comptroller Downey to Marshall Morgan, special disbursing officer, American and British Claims Arbitration, June 11, 1915:

I have your letter of the 7th instant requesting a decision as to whether you are authorized to pay a voucher for traveling expenses amounting to $119.82 incurred by Miss Hope K. Thompson, a stenographer employed in connection with a session of the arbitration. which was held at Paris, France, during the month of July, 1914.

Miss Thompson was appointed to this position June 5, 1914, with compensation to begin on the date of her departure from Washington, and an allowance of her actual and necessary traveling expenses in going to Paris and return.

The appropriation made by Congress for the expenses of the United States in connection with the arbitration incurred during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, was in lump sum and included the expense of clerical and other assistance (37 Stat., 694).

It was under authority of this appropriation that Miss Thompson was given her appointment.

The appropriation for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1914 (act of June 30, 1914; 38 Stat., 449), passed after the appointment was made, carried specific provision for the force of a United States agency for the conduct of these arbitration cases, specifying the positions and the salary attached to each, and carrying an item of $12,700 for "necessary and contingent expenses" of the agency.

Miss Thompson's appointment was legal and valid under the appropriation current at the time it was made. The authority upon which it was made, however, rested entirely upon the annual appropriation which ceased to be current from and after June 30, 1914. Her contract of employment can not operate to extend this appropriation beyond the end of the fiscal year for which it was made (Beaman v. U. S., 19 Ct. Cl., 5), nor can it serve to graft upon the appropriation for the next fiscal year any obligation not fairly within the terms of the said next appropriation.

It is well settled, however, that where an employee has traveled under due authority to a place away from official station the expense of the return trip is a just and lawful charge against the United States, even though the employment may have been terminated before the return journey is commenced (Beaman v. U. S., 19 Ct. Cl., 5; decision of October 22, 1913, to Attorney General; 67 MS. Comp. Dec., 361).

I am informed that Miss Thompson left Washington June 18, 1914. Her departure was in accordance with an appointment, valid at the time, and the United States became thereupon justly and legally obligated under the contract of employment to reimburse