If new buildings are required a special report will be made, stating fully the necessity therefor. This report, with the remarks of the department commander, will be forwarded to the War Department, and if authorized, plans and specifica. tions will be prepared in the office of the Quartermaster General.

In the spring, as soon as possible after the fires are out for the season, the quartermaster will inspect the steam, hot air, and hot water heating systems and immediately thereafter will submit estimates for the necessary repairs.

Estimates for heating, plumbing, and water supply will be made separately.

1022. The department commander will take final action upon all annual estimates for repairs to public buildings payable from appropriations for "Barracks and Quarters," made under the provisions of paragraph 1020, as limited by paragraphs 204 and 711.

He will also take final action upon special estimates payable from the same appropriation where the amount involved does not exceed $200, provided the total annual allotment for the year for that department is not exceeded; but this last authority will not apply to buildings for which a total of $500 has already been allotted during the current year for repairs. No authorization other than these will be made by the department commander for repairs except as provided for in paragraph 1025.

He will also make recommendation as to the amounts estimated for under "Regular Supplies" for repairs to hay sheds, coal sheds, ice and cold storage plants, and bakeries, but will not take final action on the same until approved by the War Department.

1024. As soon as possible after allotments to posts have been made by the department commander, one copy of the annual estimate will be forwarded to the Quartermaster General. It will have noted thereon the final action of the department commander as pertains to allotments under the appropriation for "Barracks and Quarters," and also his recommendation concerning estimates for repairs to buildings payable from the appropriation for "Regular Supplies."

1027. At each post there will be kept a book (Record Barracks and Quarters-supplied by the Quartermaster's Depart

ment) in which will be entered a record of every permanent building, under its proper numerical designation. The number originally given a building will be retained as a permanent record and will not be altered to conform to the post directory nor to any changes therein.

On the record of each building will be debited all authorizations for expenditures of any kind on that building, whether annual allotments or special, and as vouchers are paid thereunder the account will be credited therewith.

This book will be balanced annually on March 1, and the total amount expended on that building during the preceding twelve months will be reported on the annual estimate for repairs for the ensuing year.

At the close of each fiscal year, unexpended balances not held by post quartermasters for authorized payments under contract, will be returned to the chief quartermaster of the department, and the account with the building so credited; but no balances will be struck until March 1 of the following year.

This book will be so kept as to show at all times an accurate record of expenditures for all repairs, additions, alterations, etc., that the total cost of the building to date may at any time be determined.

[1004009, M. S. O.]

1235. The medical officer in charge of a general, post, or camp hospital, hospital ship, or transport carrying patients is authorized to purchase, in conformity with the requirements of Article LI, such articles of food, both solid and liquid, not carried in stock by the subsistence officer who issues rations to the hospital, and to call upon such subsistence officer for the issue of such quantities of articles from the stock already on hand as, in the judgment of the medical officer, are required for the diet of enlisted patients under his charge who are too sick to be subsisted on the ration as ordinarily issued; the total combined money value of the stores hereby authorized to be purchased and issued as above in any month not to exceed the rate calculated on the month's transactions of 38 cents per man per day for those actually requiring special diet (except that at the general hospital at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, 50 cents per man per day is authorized). Subsistence officers are authorized to pay all duly certified bills of pur

chases made by medical officers under the provisions of this paragraph, or to make the purchases themselves at the request of the medical officers, and to make issues for special diet hereunder from stores on hand at their request, provided the rate of 38 cents per man per day for those enlisted men actually requiring special diet is not exceeded in any month, except at the general hospital at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, where 50 cents is authorized. No article from the special diet allowance will be purchased from any other source so long as the Subsistence Department has it in stock. [996904, M. S. O.]

II. The following paragraph is added to the Manual for the Quartermaster's Department:

5354. Blank requests will not be removed from the military department to which they have been furnished, nor will they be transferred to officers not authorized to receive them. If lost or stolen, a report, giving the numbers and series of those missing and circumstances attending the loss, will be made at once to the chief quartermaster of the department and to the Quartermaster General, and the former will notify the transportation lines in his department and vicinity not to honor them. [1004009, M. S. O.]

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR:

OFFICIAL:

GEORGE L. GILLESPIE, Major General, Acting Chief of Staff.

F. C. AINSWORTH,

The Military Secretary.

NOTE--The last amendments of Army Regulations were made in General Orders, No. 25, War Department, February 15, 1905.