It is clear that the services here in question were not such as could have been required of the assistant surgeon under his appointment as an employee of the Alaskan Engineering Commission. From the fact that different amounts were charged for the two cases though the service is described in identical language it is also clear that the charges for the services are not per diem rates of pay, but are fees varying in amount according to the nature of the service performed.

Officers and employees of the United States are not entitled to be paid fees for testifying as witnesses in cases in which the United States is a party. In the present case the testifying seems to have been merely incidental to the performance of the autopsies which were really the service for which charge was made.

It has been held that fees are not salary within the meaning of the act of May 10, 1916, as amended. See 22 Comp. Dec., 678. The settlement is reversed and credit is hereby allowed for the items disallowed.

TELEGRAMS SHIPPING BOARD EMERGENCY FLEET CORPO.

RATION.

The Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation is an agency of the United States within the purview of section 5266, Revised Statutes, and is entitled to the benefit of the Government rates on telegraph service fixed by the Postmaster General under said section.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Chairman, United States Shipping Board, July 22, 1922.

I have your letter of July 18, 1922, as follows:

I have the honor to request your decision whether the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation should pay bills rendered to United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation at commercial rates by Western Union Telegraph Company for messages sent by that corporation in performance of the functions prescribed for it by law, it being borne in mind that all payments by the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation are made, exclusively from funds appropriated for its use by the Congress of the United States, and that United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, pursuant to provisions of section 35 of merchant marine act, 1920, is performing the duties and exercising the authority of United States Shipping Board.

The United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation is a corporation formed by the United States Shipping Board under authority conferred upon the board by section 11 of the act of September 7, 1916, 39 Stat., 731, to form one or more corporations "for the purchase, construction, equipment, lease, charter, maintenance, and operation of merchant vessels in the commerce of the United States."

As its origin and title imply, this corporation was formed as an adjunct to and an instrumentality of the Shipping Board in the accomplishment of the purposes for which it was provided. It may be

that this corporation had the usual corporate powers, functions, obligations, and duties, such as the right to sue and be sued in its own corporate name and entity, and the right to control its own corporate affairs, including the collection, custody, and expenditure of corporate funds, which funds did not at the time include any appropriated moneys of the United States except such as was paid into the corporate treasury in payment for stock of the corporation, but the corporation was none the less an adjunct to the Shipping Board, which is itself a governmental establishment and instrumentality.

The act of June 15, 1917, 40 Stat., 182, authorized and empowered the President to exercise certain powers in connection with the construction, purchase, requisitioning, and operation of ships, and provided that he might exercise that power and authority through such agency or agencies as he should determine. By Executive order of July 11, 1917, the President delegated a part of his power and authority under this act to the Emergency Fleet Corporation and the remainder to the Shipping Board to be exercised directly by the board or through the corporation in the discretion of the board. It is clear that in the exercise of any power or authority, or the performance of any function or duty under this act the Emergency Fleet Corporation acted as an agency of the President, and therefore as an agency of the United States.

The act of March 1, 1918, 40 Stat. 438 authorized and empowered the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation to perform certain functions and duties in connection with the acquisition of housing accommodations for employees of shipyards and their families, with a proviso that the corporation should report to Congress its transactions under the act. In exercising the power and authority conferred by this act the corporation was acting directly as an agency of the United States by statutory designation and authority.

I think there can be no doubt that under the terms of the foregoing statutes the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation has acted throughout the period during which the statutes were in force as an agency of the United States, either as an adjunct to the United States Shipping Board, as an agency of the President, or as a statutory agency in matters assigned directly to it by statutes. However, whatever may have been its status prior to the enactment of the act of June 5, 1920, 41 Stat., 988, that act seems to fix its status as such agency finally and conclusively.

The latter act repealed certain sections of the act of September 7, 1916, and June 15, 1917, and amended other sections of those acts. Section 4 of the act provides for transfer to the United States Shipping Board of all vessels and other property or interest of whatso

ever kind acquired by the President through any agency whatsoever in pursuance of the acts hereinbefore mentioned and certain other acts cited in the section, with the exception of vessels in the military or naval service of the United States. Section 5 of the act authorizes and directs the board to sell as soon as practicable all of the vessels referred to in section 4 or otherwise acquired by the board. Section 7 authorizes and directs the board to investigate and determine what steamship lines should be established, and to sell or charter vessels to responsible citizens who agree to establish such lines, or to operate vessels on such lines temporarily in case sales or charters for that purpose can not be made. Section 12 provides that vessels may be reconditioned and kept in suitable repair and until sold shall be managed and operated by the board or chartered and leased by it, and that the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation shall continue in existence and have authority to operate vessels until all vessels are sold. Section 35 provides that the power and authority vested in the board by the act, except as therein otherwise specifically provided, may be exercised directly by the board, or by it through the corporation.

The status of the corporation as adjunct of the board, and therefore an agency of the United States, is clearly defined and established by this statute. The corporation acts as the branch of the board for the operation of its vessels until sold by virtue of the statutory authority carried by section 12, and in all other duties which may be assigned to it by the board as the branch of the board under section 35. Furthermore, section 14 of the act provides that after July 1, 1921, net proceeds derived by the board from activities authorized by the act, and earlier shipping acts, less such amount as may be authorized annually by Congress to be withheld as operating capital, and less such sums as may be needed for the insurance fund and the construction loan fund, provided for by other sections of the act, shall be covered into the United States Treasury as miscellaneous receipts. This latter provision fixes the status of all funds of the board, or corporation, as moneys of the United States appropriated or set apart for the purposes named in the section. Such other funds. as are required by the corporation are obtained under direct appropriations for its expenses, etc., made by Congress to the United States Shipping Board, and an accounting by the corporation is required to be rendered to the Government. Acts July 1, 1918, 40 Stat., 651; March 20, 1922, 42 Stat., 444.

Section 5266, Revised Statutes, provides for transmission of telegrams between the several departments of the Government and their officers and agents at such rates as the Postmaster General shall annually fix. The United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet

Corporation is an agency of the United States within the provisions of this statute and its telegrams are subject to those provisions and to the rates fixed by the Postmaster General thereunder.

ALLOWANCES FOR SUBSISTENCE AND RENTAL OF QUARTERS FOR NAVAL OFFICERS MAINTAINING DEPENDENTS.

To establish the dependency of the mother of a naval officer under section 4, act of June 10, 1922, 42 Stat., 627, to entitle him to the additional allowances for subsistence and rental of quarters provided by sections 5 and 6 of said act for officers maintaining dependents, it must be shown that the mother's monthly income in cash or other elements of value entering into the cost of living received from other sources does not equal or exceed the contribution regularly made by the officer for her support.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Secretary of the Navy, July 22, 1922.

There has been received your letter of July 8, 1922, transmitting instructions in the form of an amendment of sections A and B of the "Instructions for carrying into effect the joint service pay bill," act of June 10, 1922, 42 Stat., 625, which are proposed to be issued to pay officers respecting the minimum requirements tending to establish the dependency of the mother of an officer under section 4, and entitling him to the increased allowances payable under other sections of the act, which disbursing officers are warranted in accepting for crediting of the allowances monthly to the officer. Such amendment was suggested in letter from this office of June 16, 1922, to bring the instructions there considered in harmony with decisions of April 6, 1922 (8 MS. Comp. Gen., 321), and June 1, 1922 (10 MS. Comp. Gen., 107).

The amendment submitted requires the execution of an affidavit by the mother of the officer in which the facts of her situation and her dependence on the officer are set forth in some detail, including a statement as to the value of the average monthly contributions made to her or for her benefit by the officer, and the source and average monthly value of income or other elements entering into the cost of living, received otherwise; and the execution of an affidavit by a disinterested person setting forth the affiant's knowledge of the relationship of the parties, the dependency of the mother, and the aid of the officer. The instruction also provides:

In both affidavits information called for is the minimum which the disbursing officer is authorized to accept in crediting the increased rental and subsistence allowance; as a guide to disbursing officers in determining whether or not the facts, as stated in the affidavit really substantiate the fact that the mother is chiefly dependent upon her son for support, make sure that the amount in "g" (value of income or other elements received independently of officer) is less than the amount in "f" (average monthly value of contributions of officer). Where this condition does not exist, or where for any reason the disbursing officer is not satisfied that the facts of dependency warrant the credit of increased rental and subsistence allowance, he shall submit the matter for decision by the Comptroller General in the usual manner.

The statute recognizes that in some cases the mother of an officer not having a wife or children under 21 may be dependent upon the

officer, and section 4 provides that the term "dependent" as used in other sections of the act "shall also include the mother of the officer, provided she is in fact dependent on him for her chief support." It may be stated generally that in any case where the income and the value of other elements entering into the cost of living expenses regularly received by the mother from other sources is greater than the value of the contributions received from the officer, the mother is not dependent upon the officer for her chief support. The statute does not contemplate that such officer, who occasionally contributes, whether gratuitously or necessarily, toward the living expenses of a mother but who is not the mother's primary and chief support to the exclusion of other possible sources, shall receive the increased allowances. In any case where the major portion of the means of livelihood of the mother is received from other sources she is not dependent upon the officer for her chief support.

It is observed that the instructions direct that when cases are presented which show a state of facts as just discussed, or where other reasons create a doubt as to whether dependency in fact exists, the disbursing officer "shall submit the matter for decision by the Comptroller General in the usual manner." If this is intended as a direction that all such cases shall be submitted for advance decision, it is to be said that it does not appear necessary to a proper carrying out of the requirements of this office. While the allowances in proper cases should be credited monthly, doubtful cases, dependent for their validity upon the ascertainment of facts, arising under these provisions of law are not entitled to more prompt payment than are doubtful claims arising under other laws.

Advance decisions are primarily for determination of questions of law, and are rendered in many cases on an assumed state of facts for the purpose of laying down rules or general principles for the guidance of officers of the Government. It is seldom that additional evidence is called for or required in connection with a submission for advance decision. The provision for advance decisions to disbursing officers was not designed to provide an audit by this office in advance of payment by a disbursing officer.

The cases here in question depend for their validity upon facts and facts only, which are necessarily different in each and every case. When an account for allowances claimed because of a dependent mother is presented to a disbursing officer and as presented does not contain facts sufficient to establish the fact of dependency as herein and heretofore defined, the officer presenting the account should be instructed to present the account as a claim to the Navy Department Division of this office for settlement. Such additional evidence as may be necessary to settle the claim will be called for by