The amount, $6,500, for Philippine Islands is the estimate submitted by the department authorities under this item and is required for land and buildings rented by the War Department in the Philippine Islands. The following is a statement of the same as shown by the records of the Quartermaster General's Office:

In addition to the above it has been decided to charge the cost of rentals for troops stationed in China to this appropriation, said cost having heretofore been charged to appropriation "Barracks and quarters." The department commander, Philippine Department, has requested that the sum of $40,000 be included in the estimates for fiscal year 1918 for China rentals. Therefore the total amount of this item will be $46,500.

Item B. & Q., P. I., 332, Building Sites.

No estimate fiscal year 1918.

Item No. B. & Q., P. I., 333. Additions to Existing Military Reservations.

No estimate for fiscal year 1918.

Item No. B. & Q., P. I., 334. Shelter for Animals and Supplies.

For present strength: The estimate under this item contemplates construction of a quartermaster storehouse at Camp Overton, the garrison of which consists of Third Battalion, Philippine Scouts, sanitary troops, and supply troops. The present storehouse at this post is in such condition as to be not worth the expenditure of funds necessary to keep it in repair, and it is proposed to replace it by a new building.

Item No. B. & Q., P. I., 335. All Other Buildings.

No estimate, fiscal year 1918.

Recapitulation.

ESTIMATE, "BARRACKS AND QUARTERS, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS," FISCAL YEAR 1918.

COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Monday, December 11, 1916.

The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. S. Hubert Dent, jr. (chairman), presiding.

STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. HENRY G. SHARPE, QUARTERMASTER GENERAL, ACCOMPANIED BY LIEUT. COL. C. B. BAKER, QUARTERMASTER CORPS; CAPT. W. H. OURY, QUARTERMASTER CORPS; CAPT. C. P. DALY, QUARTERMASTER CORPS; AND F. A. ELLISON, SECRETARY TO THE QUARTERMASTER GENERAL Continued.

The CHAIRMAN. The first item this morning is under "Subsistence of the Army."

RETIRED QUARTERMASTERS ON ACTIVE DUTY.

Gen. SHARPE. May I first present a matter under retired officers on page 20 of the committee print of the bill, Mr. Chairman ?

The CHAIRMAN. Certainly.

Gen. SHARPE. I desire to submit a proviso which will come after the item on page 20 for pay of retired officers. I spoke the other day of the decision of the Comptroller of the Treasury in regard to the status of retired officers serving as quartermasters, in which the comptroller decided that such officers were serving with troops. I submitted the following memorandum to the Chief of Staff, and asked his approval and that of the Secretary of War of the proviso to be inserted in order to correct the defect indicated by the comptroller. The memorandum is under date of December 9, 1916 (011.-P), and

says:

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In view of the decision of the comptroller as published in Memorandum No. 166, Navy Department, January 2, 1916, based upon the following quotation from the act of April 23, 1904 (33 Stats., 264), "and the Secretary of War may assign retired officers of the Army, with their consent, to active duty in recruiting, for service in connection with the Organized Militia in the several States and Territories upon the request of the governor thereof, as military attachés, upon courts-martial, courts of inquiry, and boards, and to staff duties not involving service with troops; and such officers while so assigned shall receive the full pay and allowances of their respective grades," it is held duty of a quartermaster is staff duty, but duty at the marine barracks, navy yard, Philadelphia, is duty with troops,' as I understand those barracks are garrisoned by marines. I therefore advise you that

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* is entitled to his retired pay only for duty as post quartermaster at the marine barracks, navy yard, Philadelphia. Respectfully,

W. W. WARWICK, Acting Comptroller.

It is recommended that proper steps be taken, if practicable, to insert in the appropriation act for 1918 a proviso to the following effect:

'Provided, That assignments which have been or may hereafter be made of retired officers of the Army to active duty as acting quartermasters shall be regarded as assignments to staff duties not involving service with troops within the meaning of the act of Congress approved April twenty-third, nineteen hundred and four."

The above proviso is urgently recommended to obviate any doubt as to what pay and allowance a retired officer is entitled to when on active duty as an acting quartermaster, even though some troops, two or more enlisted men, may be present at the station where the retired officer is assigned.

There are about 90 retired officers now on active duty as acting quartermasters alone, and without their assistance approximately that number of active officers would have had to be withdrawn from duty with troops already hard pressed for lack of officers. The utilization of these retired officers has been of the greatest benefit and wholly in the best interests of the service. Furthermore, the above proviso, if adopted, would place officers detailed on active duty as acting quartermasters-a duty that has been most important and trying and has taxed these officers to the utmost because of excessive hours each day for a long period-on a par with those retired officers detailed on active duty at institutions where units of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps are maintained (ref. sec. 45, national-defense act, approved June 3, 1916), and on recruiting duty, service in connection with the Organized Militia in the several States and Territories as military attachés, upon courts-martial, courts of inquiry, and boards, and to staff duties not involving service with troops. In other words, retired officers assigned to active duty which may be construed as service with troops appear to be the only ones who may, by the above-quoted decision, be excluded from the full pay and allowances that retired officers detailed on the other duties mentioned above may receive under existing law.

It is believed this distinction works unjustly as they are fully entitled from the character of work performed to the same pay and allowances as other retired officers receive when detailed on the above enumerated duties.

It is submitted that the mere accident of serving with troops should not be a bar to the pay and allowances as requested in this proviso, since the character of such service is fully deserving of the pay and allowances recommended in the proposed proviso, and would not involve any considerable increase in the appropriations already provided for pay of the Army.

HENRY G. SHARPE, Quartermaster General.

We have 34 of these officers who are on active duty as acting quartermasters at posts, and in all likelihood if these men can not receive active pay they will ask to be relieved.

Mr. SHALLENBERGER. Will this mean that they will receive more pay?

Gen. SHARPE. They will receive the same pay that they are receiving now. We were not aware of that decision when the assignments were made, and they are getting their active pay now. Mr. SHALLENBERGER. How about their allowances?

Gen. SHARPE. They are getting those, too. They are on active duty.

Mr. SHALLENBERGER. Then what is the purpose of this proviso? What does it do?

Gen. SHARPE. It enables us to retain on duty as acting quartermasters at posts where troops have been withdrawn, men who are on the retired list, who, because they are serving with a few men at the posts, under this decision of the comptroller, can not receive anything but retired pay.

Mr. SHALLENBERGER. They can not receive full, active pay? Gen. SHARPE. Not under this decision of the comptroller. Mr. SHALLENBERGER. Unless they are serving with troops? Gen. SHARPE. No retired officer can be assigned to duty with troops. The comptroller holds that the duty of a post quartermaster is duty with troops. Therefore we can not get these men to fill these places. Mr. SHALLEN BERGER. But you have some retired officers who have been put upon full pay?

Gen. SHARPE. Yes, sir.

Mr. SHALLEN BERGER. But without their knowledge or your knowledge of the decision of the comptroller?

Gen. SHARPE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. The main object of this proviso is to meet the decision of the comptroller?

Gen. SHARPE. Yes, sir.

Mr. CRAGO. General, this same thing would apply, would it not, to retired officers on recruiting duty? We allowed them to have the higher rank they would have attained if they had remained on the active list, and it has been held that if they perform duty of that kind they are not entitled to any longevity pay.

Mr. KAHN. A recruiting officer is not performing duty with troops. Mr. CRAGO. I know he is not. It was fully intended that when those men got their higher rank they would have all the emoluments of the higher rank.

Mr. KAHN. I take it the main point in this proviso is to allow these detailed retired officers to do that work which otherwise would have to be performed by officers of the line detailed for that service.

Mr. CRAGO. That same thing applies to officers performing recruiting duty. Could we not have a proviso that would cover those men?

Gen. SHARPE. It is not necessary for the recruiting officers, because the law of 1904 says very explicitly that they may be detailed "to active duty in recruiting, for service in connection with the Organized Militia in the several States and Territories upon the request of the governor thereof, as military attachés, upon courts

martial, courts of inquiry, and boards, and to staff duties not involving service with troops.

Mr. CRAGO. It has also been held that even though they are detailed to that work, that they are not entitled to longevity pay. In other words, a man may have served 15 or 20 years and he gets nothing but the pay of his rank. We did not intend that when we put that provision in the law.

Gen. SHARPE. He gets the longevity pay which he had when he retired. He does not get any increase due to that service.

Mr. CRAGO. But there are men who have been on the retired list for 10 or 15 years, and we have given them the rank which they would have attained if they had remained on the active list, because they have been on active duty. It was held by the comptroller that they were not entitled to the longevity pay. I was asking you if we should not make a provision here to take care of that situation, as well as the one you suggest. There is no use taking two bites at it. Mr. GORDON. I do not know of any duty to be performed where there are no troops.

Mr. CRAGO. An officer may have charge of the property at a post. Gen. SHARPE. Yes, sir; they have that duty, and various other duties.

Mr. GORDON. But you do not need a quartermaster for that duty; you can appoint a custodian to take care of that. If there are no troops stationed at the post, what duty would a quartermaster perform?

Mr. GREENE. He has money accountability.

Mr. KAHN. You do not detail quartermaster sergeants to do that work, do you?

Gen. SHARPE. At abandoned posts only. Take the case of Fort Myer. We have an officer on the retired list there, serving as quar

termaster.

Mr. KAHN. Of course, many of the families of the officers are located at that post.

Gen. SHARPE. There are three troops of Cavalry garrisoned at that post, but under the decision of the comptroller, the retired officer acting as quartermaster there can not get anything but his retired pay. He can not get the active pay.

Mr. CALDWELL. Although he is doing active duty?

Gen. SHARPE. Yes, sir.

Mr. GORDON. Upon what grounds was the decision of the comptroller based?

Gen. SHARPE. He based it upon the verbiage of the law.

Mr. KAHN. The comptroller says that is service with troops.
Mr. GORDON. I should think it is.

Mr. KAHN. This proviso submitted by Gen. Sharpe is intended to obviate that defect in the law?

Mr. GORDON. It is intended to pay men when they do not perform the service?

Mr. KAHN. No; to pay them for the service they do perform. Mr. CALDWELL. When they perform this active service, we want to give them equal pay for equal work.

Mr. GORDON. How is it equal pay if there are no troops? If there are no troops it does not apply, but it does apply if there are troops at the post.