under the provisions of paragraph 717 will subsequently be submitted to an inspector. The inventory and inspection reports will be accompanied by the report of the surveying officer.

679. Empty barrels, boxes, crates, and other packages, together with metal turnings, scrap metals, ground bone, and other waste products which accumulate at arsenals, depots, and military posts, which are unsuitable for the public service, will be disposed of in the manner prescribed for property condemned and ordered sold in paragraph 680. At arsenals and depots where such accumulations have considerable money value proposals will be invited for specific lots and quantities, or for the accumulations of definite periods, as the head of the department to which the property pertains may deem best suited to the public interest.

680. Military stores and public property condemned and ordered sold will be disposed of for cash at auction, or to the highest bidder on sealed proposals, on due public notice, and in such market as the public interests may require. The officer making the sale will suspend it when in his opinion better prices can be obtained, except in the case of condemned animals, the disposition of which is provided for in paragraph 1073. The auctioneer's certified detailed account of the sale, and the vouchers for the expenses attending it, will be reported on the proper forms to the chief of the bureau to which the property pertained.

681. Public property which has been condemned, or the issue price of which has been reduced as the result of a survey or inspection, will not be purchased by an officer who was responsible therefor at the time of condemnation or reduction of price, nor by an officer who bore any part in such condemnation or reduction.

PROPERTY DAMAGED, LOST, DESTROYED REWARDS.

682. Causes of damage to, and of loss and destruction of, military property are classified as follows:

1. Unavoidable causes, being those over which the responsible officers have no control, occurring (a) in the ordinary course of service, or (b) as incident to an active campaign.

2. Avoidable causes, being those due to carelessness, willfulness, or neglect. 683. Officers responsible for public property will be charged for any damage to or loss or destruction of the same, and the money value will be deducted from their monthly pay, unless they show, to the satisfaction of the Secretary of War, by their own affidavits, or by their certificates, supported by one or more affidavits, that the damage, loss, or destruction was occasioned by unavoidable causes and without fault or neglect on their part.

684. The proper officers to administer oaths in the administration of the affairs of the Army (except when otherwise specially provided) are department judge advocates, judge advocates of courts-martial, the trial officers of summary courts, and in the cases of investigations, the officer detailed to conduct the investigation, or the recorder, and if there be none, the presiding officer of any board appointed for such purpose. When none of these are within reach and available, recourse must be had to a notary public or other civil officer competent to administer oaths for general purposes.

685. If an article of public property be lost or damaged by the neglect or fault of any officer or soldier, he shall pay the value thereof, or the cost of repairs, at such rates as may be determined by a survey of the property.

686. The amount charged against an enlisted man on the pay rolls on account of loss or damage of, or repairs to, Government property shall not ex

ceed the value of the article or cost of repairs; and such charge will only be made on conclusive proof, and never without a survey, if the soldier demand it. He will be informed at the time of signing the pay rolls that his signature will be regarded as an acknowledgment of the justice of the charge.

687. When a deserter carries away public property, or when such property is lost through his desertion, its value will be determined by a survey and charged against him on the next pay rolls, as prescribed in paragraph 116.

688. If articles of public property are embezzled, or lost or damaged through neglect, by a civilian employee, the value or damage as ascertained (and by a survey if necessary) shall be charged to him and set against any pay or money due him.

689. Whenever information is received that animals or other property belonging to the military service of the United States are unlawfully in the possession of any person not in the military service, the quartermaster or other proper officer will promptly cause proceedings to be instituted and diligently prosecuted before the civil authorities for the recovery of the property; and, if the same has been stolen, for the arrest, trial, conviction, and due punishment of the offender and his accomplices.

690. Upon satisfactory information that such United States property, unlawfully in the possession of any parties, is likely to be taken away, concealed, or otherwise disposed of before the necessary proceedings can be had in the civil tribunals for its recovery, the post or detachment commander will at once cause the same to be seized, and will hold it subject to any legal proceedings that may be instituted by other parties. Persons caught in the act of stealing public property will be summarily arrested by the troops and turned over to the civil authorities for trial.

691. When public property has been lost or stolen and the officer responsible therefor has failed to get possession of it by the ordinary means, the post commander may authorize the quartermaster to offer a reward for its recovery, such reward not to exceed one-fifth of the value of the property lost or stolen, and in no case shall it exceed $50. If the property has been stolen, the reward shall include payment for such information as the claimant possesses in regard to the larceny and recovery of the property as may lead to a conviction of the guilty party.

692. The expenses necessarily incurred by any action under the three preceding paragraphs, with the exception of attorney's fees, will be paid by the Quartermaster Corps, upon proper vouchers approved by the department commander. Officers will promptly report their action to department headquarters.

PROPERTY ACCOUNTABILITY.

693. All public property, whether paid for or not, must be accounted for on the proper returns. All public property unaccounted for when discovered by an accountable officer will be taken up and the usual returns rendered therefor. When discovered by officers not accountable for that class of property, or by enlisted men or civilian employees, they shall report the same as soon as practicable to an officer so accountable, who will take it up and account for it. In the absence of such an accountable officer the senior officer, enlisted man, or civilian employee present will take charge of such property and report it to the commander of the department wherein it may be located with a view to its proper disposition.

694. An officer accountable for the public property of two or more companies will account for that pertaining to each, except quartermaster supplies, on a separate return.

695. Accountability for public property will not be transferred to enlisted men, except to sergeants of the post noncommissioned staff at ungarrisoned posts and sergeants of the Signal Corps or enlisted men acting as such.

696. Vouchers for issues or expenditures of property not authorized by regulations will be accompanied by copies of the orders directing the issues or expenditures.

697. An officer will have credit for an expenditure of property made in obedience to the order of his commanding officer. If the expenditure is disallowed, it will be charged to the officer who ordered it.

698. Public property expended in the military service will be accounted for by the certificate of the accountable officer, and property lost or destroyed will be accounted for by the affidavit of the responsible officer, or by his certificate supported by one or more affidavits. These certificates and affidavits will accompany the return covering the period during which the expenditure occurred or the loss or destruction was discovered; but in exceptional cases, when it is impracticable to submit such certificates and affidavits with the return, these delayed vouchers, together with the reasons for not transmitting the same, will be specified upon the return, and they will be forwarded, as soon as practicable, properly numbered and indorsed, to the proper bureau of the War Department.

699. When an enlisted man has, by a court-martial, been convicted of losing or damaging public property, the officer accountable for the property will send with his property return a certified copy of so much of the court-martial order as refers to the case, giving number, date, and place of issue of the order, and stating on the face of said copy the rolls on which the charges are made.

700. Should an officer or agent of the Government charged with public property fail to render the prescribed returns thereof within a reasonable time, a settlement of his accounts will be made by the proper bureau of the War Department, and the money value of the property with which he is charged will be reported against him for stoppage.

701. All returns of stores or supplies will be rendered as required by regulations or orders. Those of subsistence stores will be forwarded within 10 days after the expiration of the accounting periods and those of other classes of stores and property within 20 days to the chiefs of bureaus to which they pertain. In cases in which complete transfer of property from one officer to another occurs within an accounting period, a return will be forwarded by the officer making the transfer within 20 days after the date of such transfer; but when ordnance property is transferred by a commanding officer of an ordnance establishment, by a coast defense ordnance officer, or by a post ordnance officer, and when submarine mine property is transferred by a coast defense artillery engineer, within an accounting period, the transfer of accountability will be made on the current return, which will be completed and rendered by the officer accountable at the close of the accounting period.

ADMINISTRATIVE EXAMINATION OF PROPERTY RETURNS.

702. As soon as possible after the receipt of a return by the proper chief of bureau, it will be examined in his office, and the officer making the return will be notified of all errors and irregularities found therein and granted three months to correct them. Suspensions or disallowances will not be made on account of slight informalities which do not affect the validity of a voucher, but the officer's attention may be called to them. Whenever the errors have been corrected or compensation has been made for deficient articles, and the action of the bureau chief is sustained or modified by the Secretary of War, the return

will be regarded as settled, and the officer who rendered it will be notified accordingly.

703. If the necessary corrections in the return be not made within the prescribed time, the facts will be reported to the Secretary of War. When it shall have been determined that the money value of the property for which an officer has failed to account shall be refunded to the United States, the proper chief of bureau will forward to the Auditor for the War Department a certificate setting forth the condition of the officer's property return, with the statement that it includes all charges made up to its date and not previously certified, and that he has had a reasonable opportunity to be heard and has not been relieved of responsibility. Such certificate, when received, will raise a charge on the books of the Treasury Department against the officer until refundment shall have been made.

ARTICLE LIV.

LANDS, BUILDINGS, AND IMPROVEMENTS.

704. Land shall not be purchased for the United States except under an act of Congress authorizing the purchase, nor shall public money be expended for the erection of armories, arsenals, forts, fortifications, or permanent buildings of any description thereon, until the written opinion of the Attorney General shall have been obtained announcing the validity of the title thereof in the Government, nor, if the land be within any State, until jurisdiction over it shall have been ceded to the United States by the legislature of the State, or such cession of jurisdiction shall have been expressly waived by Congress.

705. All papers relating to the Washington Aqueduct and public buildings and grounds in the District of Columbia will be filed in the office of the Chief of Engineers. All other deeds and papers pertaining to the title or sale of, and any lease, grant, license, or easement of, upon, or over any military reservation or other lands under the jurisdiction of the War Department will be filed in the office of the Judge Advocate General. When any such papers come into the possession of any bureau they shall within five days thereafter be transferred to the office of the Judge Advocate General.

706. Permanent military buildings will be constructed only under special authority granted by an act of Congress, unless the work or labor connected therewith is performed by troops, and in such case the authority of Congress must first be obtained if the estimated cost of the building or structure exceeds $20,000.

707. Permanent barracks, quarters, or other buildings, or piers or wharves, will not be erected or constructed except by the order of the Secretary of War, and in accordance with plans approved by him; nor will any material alterations be made in public buildings unless like authority is first obtained; nor will any expenditures exceeding $500 be made upon any building or grounds at any post, fort, arsenal, or depot without the approval of the Secretary of War and upon detailed estimates submitted to him.

708. A copy of the plat of the lands at each post, fort, arsenal, and depot, furnished from the proper bureau, will be carefully preserved in the office of the commanding officer.

709. Whenever a public building at a military post or station in the United States is destroyed or seriously damaged by fire, storm, or other natural cause, the post or station commander will make immediate report of that fact by telegraph directly to The Adjutant General of the Army, stating the numerical or other designation of the building involved and the date and cause of the destruction or damage, and will make a like report to the department com

mander if the post or station is under his command. When the destruction or damage occurs at a general depot of supply, a general hospital, or an arsenal or armory, or involves a building owned or leased by the Government and used for military purposes, but not located on a military reservation, the officer in charge, in addition to making the telegraph report herein before prescribed to the head of the staff bureau of the War Department to which any such building may pertain, will make a like report by telegraph directly to The Adjutant General of the Army.

In the Philippine and Hawaiian Departments telegraphic report of the damage or destruction of such buildings will be made to the department commanders, who will cable the report to The Adjutant General of the Army if the case is of more than minor importance.

In addition to the foregoing, the estimated damage and the cost of repairs or reconstruction will be reported upon by a board of officers, to be appointed for the purpose by the post commander when the building is located at a military post, and to be appointed in orders from the office of The Adjutant General of the Army in all other cases, except in the Philippine and Hawaiian Departments, where the board will be appointed by the department commanders. In the event that the destruction or damage is not due to natural causes, the board will make a thorough investigation with a view to fixing the responsibility for such destruction or damage, and will make such recommendation with respect thereto as the case may demand. The report of the board will be forwarded through military channels to The Adjutant General of the Army.

The action contemplated by this paragraph will apply, as far as practicable, in the case of loss or destruction of or damage to an Army transport, Army mine planter, cable ship, or other vessel owned or operated by the War Department.

ARTICLE LV.

SURVEYS OF PROPERTY.

710. Public property which has been damaged, except by fair wear and tear, or is unsuitable for the service, before being submitted to an inspector for condemnation, will be surveyed by a disinterested officer, preferably the summary court officer.

711. The surveying officer will be designated by the commanding officer of the regiment, separate battalion, post, or station. Such officer may, however, be appointed by the commanding officer of a department, field army, division, brigade, or district. If none but the commanding officer and interested officers be present for duty, then the commanding officer will survey the property. When only the responsible or interested officer is present, he will not appoint himself surveying officer, but will furnish the next higher administrative commander his certificate of facts and circumstances, supported by the sworn testimony of witnesses, or by the affidavits of enlisted men or others who are cognizant thereof. Should the case thus presented not be considered satisfactory, or in a case in which only interested officers with opposing interests are present for duty at the post or station, the next higher administrative commander may make the necessary investigation. In cases where the property in question has been previously acted upon, the officer making the investigation will be so informed and the previous reports will be considered.

712. The surveying officer must fully investigate matters submitted to him. He will call for all evidence attainable, and will not limit his inquiries to proofs or statements presented by parties in interest. He will rigidly scrutinize