property return of the accountable officer; and when ammunition is dropped from a return as "expended in action by civil employees" a statement giving the place, date, and attending circumstances, sufficiently in detail to insure verification, must be filed with the return.

1530. Ammunition expended by a soldier without orders, or not in the line of duty, or which may be damaged or lost through his neglect, will be charged to him.

1531. When ammunition is furnished to civilian employees, it is not to be dropped from the returns unless expended in action or in hunting when necessary to obtain subsistence. Ammunition not so expended will be returned to the responsible officer and accounted for by him, or paid for at the price fixed.

SURPLUS AND DAMAGED STORES.

1532. Serviceable surplus ordnance stores, if in sufficient quantity to warrant separate shipment, may be turned in to the nearest arsenal on the order of a department commander, or, if in the hands of a recruiting officer, on the order of the War Department.

Small quantities of such articles on hand in an organization, not warranting separate shipment, will be turned in to the post ordnance officer, who will retain them for issue or ship them as prescribed in paragraph 1538, as may be directed by the department commander.

1533. Officers in charge of arsenals and ordnance depots will afford every facility to officers authorized to turn in property. They will give receipts for it according to condition.

1534. Whenever canteens become unserviceable because of worn-out covers or lost corks, they will not be presented for condemnation, but will be repaired by the troops. Timely requisitions will be made by the proper post or other designated staff officer on the Ordnance Department for extra covers, corks, etc., with which to repair them.

1535. Articles of personal equipments or other ordnance property which a detached soldier carries with him, or for which he may be indebted to the United States at the time of his transfer, will be entered on duplicate invoice and receipt transfer blanks (Form No. 152). The blanks will, when practicable, indicate the destination of the soldier. The two transfer blanks will be signed by the accountable officer or the issuing officer in his name, and by the soldier acknowledging receipt of the stores, including those missing. One of these signed blanks will be forwarded with the descriptive list or descriptive and assignment card of the soldier; the second constitutes the authority on which the accountable officer will drop the articles thus turned over and missing.

On arrival of the soldier at his destination all articles appearing on the transfer blank accompanying the descriptive list or descriptive and assignment card will be taken up by the proper officer, who will receipt for the same on this blank and forward it immediately to the Chief of Ordnance. All articles missing on arrival will be charged against the soldier and dropped from the return of the accountable officer in the usual manner.

A copy of the transfer blank will be kept by each accountable officer for his retained return.

1536. Detached soldiers going to or returning from the Philippine Islands and Alaska will be required to turn in all ordnance property in their possession before departure.

1537. Ordinary repairs can usually be made in the company or at the post or within the district with the means provided for that purpose by the Ordnance Department. When the repairs required can not be thus made, the articles, except small arms, hand arms, and personal and horse equipments, will be sent, on the approved recommendation of an inspector, to an arsenal designated by the Chief of Ordnance. Small arms, hand arms, and personal and horse equipments, on the approved recommendation of an inspector, will be turned in to the post ordnance officer, who will, when sufficient stores have accumulated to make an economical shipment, send them to an arsenal designated by the Chief of Ordnance. A certified extract from the inspection report will accompany the invoice describing the articles as the authority for turning them in to an arsenal, or to the post ordnance officer.

1538. In the absence of an inspecting officer, a department commander may order the disposition of ordnance and ordnance stores which need repairs that can not be made by the means at hand at the post or within the district in the following manner: Machine guns and their mounts and accessory equipments, arm racks, and, on the request of an armanent officer, articles constituting the mobile or seacoast artillery and those used in the maintenance and operation thereof, including ammunition, will be sent to an arsenal designated by the Chief of Ordnance. Small arms, hand arms, and personal and horse equipments will be turned in to the post ordnance officer, who will, when sufficient stores have accumulated to make an economical shipment, send them to an arsenal designated by the Chief of Ordnance. A certified copy of the order of the department commander and, when the condition of the articles does not result from fair wear and tear, a certified copy of the approved finding of the surveying officer will accompany the invoice transferring the articles to an arsenal or to a post ordnance officer.

1539. For the maintenance and improvement of the mobile and seacoast artillery and accessories, armament districts are established in orders from the War Department, and the assignment of armament officers to the charge of these districts is made by the Chief of Ordnance. These officers will keep themselves informed of the condition of the material by inspections and by direct correspondence with the various district and post commanders. The former are authorized to make the necessary repairs to material in their districts, but no alterations can be made without the authority of the Chief of Ordnance. Where repairs indicate improper handling or neglect of material, the circumstances will be reported to the Chief of Ordnance.

When mechanics employed by an armament officer are on duty at a post or in a district, they will, in the absence of the armament officer, be under the supervision of the post or district commander.

When a part of or an accessory to an article constituting a portion of the armament of a district becomes obsolete and is replaced, the obsolete part or accessory will be transferred by the district commander to an arsenal to be designated by the armament officer.

1540. No officer will turn in any unserviceable ordnance stores except as provided in these regulations.

1541. Price lists of ordnance and ordnance stores will be published from time to time for the information and guidance of officers in making inventories, sales, and charges for the loss of or damage to ordnance property.

1542. Arm chests not required for the storage of supplies will be returned to the nearest arsenal or ordnance depot when the cost of transportation is not greater than the value of the property. Officers to whom such chests have been issued will be charged with their value if they are destroyed.

INSPECTION OF ORDNANCE AND ORDNANCE STORES.

1543. When the recommendation of an inspector for sale of ordnance stores is approved, both copies of the report will be returned to the officer accountable for the stores, with detailed instructions how to make the sales. One copy of each inventory and inspection report must accompany the property return. Sales of condemned ordnance and ordnance stores will be accounted for on Form No. 272, which will be executed in duplicate and forwarded directly to the Chief of Ordnance on completion of the sale. A third copy will accompany the officer's property return.

PACKING AND TRANSPORTATION.

1544. Officers who ship arms of any description are held responsible that they are so packed that, under ordinary handling, they can not break loose from their fastenings in the boxes, and that no loaded arm is packed for transportation. When loaded arms, or arms insecurely packed, are received by an officer, he will report the facts direct to the Chief of Ordnance.

1545. After packing arms or ordnance stores for shipment, the covers and bottoms of the arm chests and packing boxes will, if possible, be sealed with wax and stamped with an official mark by the officer responsible. The lid will be secured by screws, at least two of which will be sealed. Each board on top and bottom will have at least one sealed screw. The screw heads will be countersunk to a depth sufficient to protect the wax seal from injury. The design of the seal will designate the arsenal, depot, post, or organization from which shipment is made. For over-sea shipments, all boxes and crates will be properly strapped with wire or hoop iron. Boxes containing arms and other valuable stores will be sealed prior to shipment from ordnance establishments in accordance with special instructions from the Chief of Ordnance.

1546. The Ordnance Department will prepare official stamps for sealing boxes and distribute them to each company. Company commanders will account for them in their returns of ordnance stores and use them exclusively for purposes intended.

1547. In preparing property for shipment, the name of the invoicing officer, or of the arsenal or depot, the date of the invoice, the number, gross weight, and general contents of each box or package, and the name or designation of the receiving officer, will be distinctly marked thereon prior to delivery for shipment. Each quartermaster who ships or receives ordnance stores will satisfy himself that the seals on the packages are unbroken. If the seals should be broken and any stores lost, he will cause the value of the lost stores to be charged to the carrier.

1548. When stores are turned over to the Quartermaster Corps for transportation they will be accompanied by triplicate invoices, one of which will be receipted and returned by the shipping quartermaster to the invoicing officer. Duplicate invoices with duplicate receipts to be signed by the receiving officer, and a shipping list describing the contents of each box or package, will be sent direct to the receiving officer by mail, to reach him, if practicable, before the receipts of the stores. Materials procured for current use at ordnance establishments will be transported at the expense of the Ordnance Department.

RETURNS AND REPORTS.

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1549. Officers accountable for ordnance and ordnance stores will render the returns and statements required by Ordnance Property Regulations.

1550. Records of artillery firing will be kept at seacoast forts and by organizations of mobile artillery, as prescribed in instructions from the War Department, and a copy forwarded directly to the Chief of Ordnance.

1551. Requisitions for blanks and blank books required for the use of the Ordnance Department will be made annually by every regiment and company, and forwarded to the Chief of Ordnance not later than April 30 of each year. Those suited to every command and arm of the service can be obtained upon application to the Chief of Ordnance. The requisitions will give the form number and state the quantity of each blank and blank book desired, based on the needs for the following fiscal year.

1552. In the care and preservation of artillery material, magazines, small arms, etc., the instructions contained in the authorized Manual of Coast Artillery and the publications of the Ordnance Department will be observed.

TESTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TRIALS.

1553. No written or pictorial description of tests by this Government of arms or munitions of war will be made for publication without the authority of the Secretary of War, nor will any information, written or verbal, concerning them which is not contained in the printed reports and documents of the War Department be given to any unauthorized person.

1554. Except by special authority of the Secretary of War, no persons other than officers of the Army and Navy of the United States and Members of Congress in their official capacity, and persons in the service of the United States employed in direct connection with such tests, will be allowed to witness the

same.

1555. Until further orders, inventors and manufacturers, or their properly accredited representatives, will also be permitted to be present at tests of and experiments with their own inventions.

Commanding officers of ordnance establishments and other military posts are authorized to pass such persons into them when they present the necessary credentials, but only for the purpose stated. Access to parts of commands not involved in the tests and experiments and to any war material, or to any means of obtaining knowledge of the same, is prohibited.

ARTICLE LXXVII.

SIGNAL CORPS.

NOTE. Regulations for the government of the Signal Corps, and for the operation and maintenance of United States military telegraph lines and cables, prepared and published by the Chief Signal Officer of the Army, under authority of the Secretary of War, are distributed to officers and men by the Chief Signal Officer. Only such regulations are herein given as are general in their nature or affect other branches of the service.

1556. The Chief Signal Officer is charged with the direction of the Signal Corps of the Army; with the control of the officers, enlisted men, and employees attached thereto; with the construction, repair, and operation of military cables, telegraphic and telephonic lines and radio installations, field telegraph trains, balloon trains, and furnishing and installing instruments and connecting cables used for transmitting information in connection with fire control at seacoast fortifications; with the preparation, distribution, and revision of the War Department Telegraph Code; with the supervision of such instruction in military signaling and telegraphy as may be prescribed in orders from the War Department; with the procurement, preservation, and distribution of the necessary supplies for the Signal Corps and for signaling installations of the lake and seacoast defenses. He has charge of all military signal duties, and of books, papers, and devices connected therewith, including telegraph and telephone apparatus and the necessary meteorological instruments for target ranges and other military uses; of collecting and transmitting information for the Army, by telegraph or otherwise, and all other duties pertaining to military signaling.

1557. Men may be enlisted for the Signal Corps, at the discretion of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army, in the class or grade for which they are competent and in which there is a vacancy. They will be promoted and reduced in the class or grade, as fixed by law, by the Chief Signal Officer of the Army or by his authority.

1558. The senior signal officer of an army in the field commands the signal parties serving therein. Orders affecting them will be transmitted through him, and he will be responsible that they are fully instructed, adequately supplied, and that they properly perform their duties. He will keep himself informed of the position of the army and of the enemy, and, under the instruction of the general commanding, will establish his stations. He will submit reports of operations to the general commanding, and forward copies thereof to the Chief Signal Officer in Washington, to whom he will report monthly his station, the strength and condition of his parties, and all other matters pertaining to their duties and equipment.

1559. When telegraph lines are placed under charge of signal officers, they will be held responsible for their construction, maintenance, and operation. Commanding officers and others will see that the special duties of these officers are not interfered with, and upon proper application will render any assistance in their power.

1560. Communications transmitted by telegraph or signals are always confidential, and will not be revealed except to those officially entitled to receive them, or in cases specially ordered by competent military authority.

1561. Official and military messages will have precedence. Subject to modification in orders from the War Department, or by order of the commanding general of the army in the field, important dispatches will be usually sent in the following order of priority, due regard being had to the relative urgency of messages in the same class:

First. Those relating to the movement or administration of the army in the field, and of the Navy.

Second. Other messages relating to the Army, to the Navy, and to governmental departments or bureaus of the United States.

Third. Messages of State, Territorial, or other civil officials, relating to public business.

Fourth. Messages between diplomatic agents of neutral governments.
Fifth. Press messages.

Sixth. Miscellaneous business, those relating to death or serious illness having priority.

Unimportant dispatches of any class must not, however, be given precedence over important dispatches of a subordinate class.