should be sent free. Similarly, there is some force in the suggestion that Congress may have intended that the right of free registration by officers of the Government should not depend upon their location in Washington, but upon the nature of the office and the character of the business; and this doubt was evidently in the mind of Acting AttorneyGeneral Phillips when he said that while the departments are "regardant as to Washington, yet it seems that such quality is not absolute for all purposes." The only consideration which seems to lead to a different conclusion is that, in phrasing the proviso, Congress omitted the word "officers" and returned to the expression "Executive Departments or bureaus thereof," to which AttorneyGeneral Devens, in the opinion already quoted, had given an official construction. It is, therefore, not unreasonable to suppose that by this choice of words Congress meant that, while the privilege of ordinary mailing should be extended by the act of 1884 to all officers, yet the free registration of official matter should be confined to the Executive Departments or bureaus, which Attorney-General Devens had construed to include such only as were "established at the seat of Government." This conclusion is also sustained to some extent by the supplementary legislation referred to in your letter, although, in my judgment, it is not entirely convincing. As your Department has, since the act of 1884, acted upon the latter construction of this proviso, and as such construction was given to it by this Department in the opinion of Acting Attorney-General Phillips, I prefer to adhere to it, notwithstanding some doubt as to whether the proviso may not have a more extended application. The conclusion which he reached, therefore, that "a department officer who, in the course of public business, is called temporarily to discharge his official duties at some place away from the seat of Government," during such absence and for such duties comes within the meaning of the words "Executive Departments or bureaus thereof," is hereby affirmed. Very respectfully, The POSTMASTER-GENERAL. JOHN W. GRIGGS. NAVAL OFFICERS-PROMOTION. The expression, "wounds received in the line of his duty," found in section 1494, Revised Statutes, which provides for the promotion of officers of the Navy whose physical disqualifications do not incapacitate them for other duties, means precisely what it says-namely, wounds received in the line of duty-and is not restricted to any particular part of that duty, as to wounds received in battle or in some hazardous enterprise. An officer thus disqualified for sea duty, is eligible for promotion if his wounds do not incapacitate him for other duties in the grade to which he seeks promotion. The words "other duties," in section 1494, Revised Statutes, refer to duties other than duties at sea. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of November 15, 1900, inclosing a memorandum to your Department from the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, in which you ask my opinion whether Mr. George Mullison, lieutenant (junior grade), U. S. N., is eligible for promotion to lieutenant under the provisions of Revised Statutes, section 1494. The main facts as stated, are these: Mr. Mullison in 1895, while on duty as an ensign on shipboard, was seriously injured by the parting of an anchor chain, necessitating amputation of a leg. As a result, he has since been unable to perform any of the duties of his profession except on shore. Subsequently on passing the required examination, he was promoted, under section 1494, to the grade of lieutenant (junior grade); and the question is, whether he is eligible for further promotion under this section. Revised Statutes, sections 1493 and 1494, are as follows: "SEC. 1493. No officer shall be promoted to a higher grade on the active list of the Navy, except in the case provided in the next section, until he has been examined by a board of naval surgeons and pronounced physically qualified to perform all his duties at sea. "SEC. 1494. The provisions of the preceding section shall not exclude from the promotion which he would otherwise. be regularly entitled any officer in whose case such medical board may report that his physical disqualification was occasioned by wounds received in the line of his duty, and that such wounds do not incapacitate him for other duties in the grade to which he shall be promoted." Two questions are here involved: First, whether, as claimed by the Bureau of Navigation, the "wounds" referred to in section 1494 are those only received in battle or in some hazardous enterprise in the line of official duty, or include wounds otherwise received in the line of duty; and second, whether an officer thus incapacitated for duty on shipboard is yet eligible for promotion if his wounds do not incapacitate him. for other duties of his profession in the grade to which he seeks promotion. As to the first question, I am clearly of opinion that the expression referred to in section 1494 means precisely what it so plainly says, namely, "wounds received in the line of his duty," and is not restricted to wounds received in any particular branch or portion of that duty. Whatever reasons may have existed for making or not making a distinction, in that regard, between wounds received in battle or some other hazardous enterprise, and those otherwise received in the line of duty, it quite suffices that the statute has made no such distinction, and therefore we can make none. The statute is plain and unambiguous, and therefore neither calls for nor admits of construction. It must be read as it is written. As to the second question, the meaning of the law is little less certain when both sections are read together, as they must be. Section 1493 provides that, except in the cases mentioned in the next section, "no officer shall be promoted to a higher grade on the active list of the Navy" until he has been "reported physically qualified to perform all his duties at sea." Then section 1494 provides that though an officer be disqualified by reason of wounds received in the line of his duty," for certain services, this shall not exclude him from promotion if such wounds do not incapacitate him for other duties in the grade to which he shall be promoted.” Here is a case of "physical disqualification" for certain kind of duties, but which does not "incapacitate him for other duties." What, then, are the duties for which the officer is disqualified, and what are the duties for which he is not incapacitated? When we read the two sections together, the answer is plain. He is "disqualified to perform all his duties at sea," as mentioned in section 1493, but he is not incapacitated for the "other duties" mentioned in section 1494. Reading both sections together, it is plain that the "other duties" referred to are those other than "duties at sea," for there is nothing else to which these words can refer. We have, then, the plain case of an officer disqualified for "duties at sea," but not incapacitated for "other duties," and this is just the case in which the statute says the officer may be promoted. Indeed, I understand that the decisions and practice of your Department have been long and uniformly in accordance with the views thus expressed. In 1868 Passed Assistant Engineer Cooper lost a leg from having it crushed in machinery while on duty on shipboard. Though incapacitated for sea service, he was afterwards promoted, under this section 1491, and performed satisfactorily the shore duties to which he was assigned. In November, 1877, he was ordered before a retiring board, which found that he was not incapacitated for active service, in the meaning of the law, and, therefore, did not recommend him for retirement. Upon the record of these proceedings President Hayes made this indorsement: "This report and finding are approved. Mr. Cooper will not be retired." This could have been only upon the ground that the officer, though disqualified for "duties at sea," was not incapacitated for the "other duties" mentioned in section 1494. In 1895 Assistant Engineer Walter S. Burke, U. S. N., while on duty on shipboard, had his arm crushed in the machinery, resulting in amputation of the forearm. In August, 1896, upon examination for promotion, the board found that, solely from the facts above stated, he was disqualified for the performance of his duties at sea, but that he was not incapacitated for the other duties of his profession in the grade to which he sought to be promoted, and Mr. Burke was promoted accordingly. A later case is that of Ensign Wilfred V. Powelson, U.S.N., who, in 1898, was so seriously injured in both legs, by falling through a hatch, as to be physically disqualified for duty on shipboard, yet he was, under this section, 1494, promoted to lieutenant (junior grade), the board having found that his wounds did not incapacitate him for other duties in that grade. These cases sufficiently indicate the construction given by your Department to these sections, and its practice thereunder; and I think they are correct. Such decisions and practice should not be departed from in the case of a particular officer, unless they are clearly wrong or detrimental to the service, even if there were doubt as to their correct ness. It is urged by the Bureau of Navigation that, while the promotion of Ensign Mullison to lieutenant (junior grade) did not interfere with the claims of any other officer for promotion, yet, as the number of lieutenants in the Navy is limited by law, his promotion to that grade would interfere with the claims of other officers. Doubtless it would, and so, and to the same extent, would his promotion, if he were not wounded. Where the number of officers of a certain grade is limited. and can not be exceeded, the promotion to that grade of one of several equally eligible necessarily interferes with the claims of the others; but it is not perceived that it does so any the more in case the officer promoted is incapacitated, by wounds in the line of his duty, for all the duties of that grade. The real objection, if there be any, to the promotion of an officer physically disqualified for duty on shipboard, is one which the Navy Department or the Government, but not an expectant officer, however deserving, might make, and that is that such promotion would, to a great extent, prevent the service from receiving in that grade all the benefit it would receive from the service of a sound man; and, as the number of such officers is limited, the whole may be required for sea duty, and the filling of one or more vacancies by promotion of men fit for shore duty alone, might be detrimental to the service. I am not called upon to express any opinion respecting |