98. A post noncommissioned staff officer at an ungarrisoned post or station will be responsible for the property of his own department, and for such other property as may be intrusted to him for safe-keeping. For all public property committed to his charge he will account to the heads of the staff departments concerned, and if the means at his disposal are insufficient for its preservation he will report the facts. 99. The military control of post noncommissioned staff officers serving at posts not occupied by troops is vested in the commander of the territorial department in which they are serving. All matters relating to them as soldiers subject to military command, as distinguished from the administrative duties imposed upon them by regulations and orders, will, except in cases of reenlistment, be determined at department headquarters, where their descriptive lists and accounts of pay and clothing will be kept. When they are discharged a copy of the descriptive list, upon which will be noted the fact of discharge, with the date, place, and cause, and the character given on the dischargè certificate, will be forwarded to The Adjutant-General of the Army. 100. Each post noncommissioned staff officer will make a personal report on June 30 of each year. The officer under whose orders these noncommissioned officers are serving will indorse upon each separate report his opinion of the manner in which the noncommissioned officer has performed his duties, and the commanding officer will forward the report through military channels to the chief of the proper bureau or corps. In addition to the annual personal report, each post noncommissioned staff officer changing station under proper orders will report through his commanding officer to the chief of the proper bureau or corps upon arrival at his new station the date he left his former station and date he reported for duty at his new station. Similar report will be made upon return from any detached duty, furlough, or other absence. 101. A post noncommissioned staff officer may be reenlisted, provided he shall have conducted himself properly and performed his duties in a satisfactory manner. If, however, his commanding officer should not deem the reenlistment to be for the best interest of the service, he will communicate his reasons to The Adjutant-General of the Army in time to receive the decision of the War Department before the soldier's discharge. If serving at an ungarrisoned post, application for reenlistment will be made by the soldier to The Adjutant-General of the Army through department headquarters, and the reenlistment papers in such cases will immediately be forwarded through the same channel. A post noncommissioned staff officer will be furnished with a warrant signed by the chief of the proper staff corps or department. The warrant will remain in force so long as the soldier is continuously in the service, i. e., if he reenlists the day following that of discharge. Every such reenlistment will be noted on the back of the warrant by the officer who reenlists the soldier, as follows: Reenlisted (date); warrant continued. 102. Post noncommissioned staff officers, though liable to discharge for inefficiency or misconduct, will not be reduced. GENERAL NONCOMMISSIONED STAFF. 103. The general noncommissioned staff consists of noncommissioned officers of the Signal Corps, Hospital Corps, and Ordnance Department, except ordnance sergeants. They are appointed, promoted, reduced, and their warrants signed as follows: In the Hospital Corps, as prescribed in Article LXXVII. In the Signal Corps, by the Chief Signal Officer as prescribed in paragraph 1575. Their warrants may be continued in force upon discharge and reenlistment, if reenlistment be made on the day following that of discharge; each reenlistment and continuance will be noted on the warrant by the company or detachment commander. ARTICLE XVI. DETACHED SOLDIERS: DESCRIPTIVE LISTS. 104. When an enlisted man is detached from his company, a descriptive list will be prepared and forwarded to his new commanding officer. On the descriptive list will be shown the pay due the soldier, the condition of his clothing allowance, and all information necessary to the settlement of his accounts with the Government. When it can be avoided, the descriptive list will not be intrusted to the soldier, but to an officer or noncommissioned officer under whose charge he may be, or it may be forwarded by mail. The date of the last vaccination of the soldier and its result will be noted on the descriptive list. Articles of ordnance equipment in possession of a detached soldier will be transferred as prescribed in paragraph 1552. ARTICLE XVII. FURLOUGHS TO SOLDIERS. 105. Furloughs in the prescribed form for periods of three months may be granted to enlisted men by general officers commanding posts, and for periods of one month by other commanding officers of posts, or by regimental commanders if the companies to which the men belong are under their control. A furlough will not be granted to a soldier about to be discharged, nor shall the number of enlisted men furloughed from any command in the field exceed 5 per cent of the enlisted strength present therewith. 106. The commander of a tactical division or separate brigade may grant furloughs to enlisted men for two months; the commander of a tactical corps, territorial division or department for three months, or they may extend to such periods furloughs already granted. Chiefs of War Department bureaus may grant furloughs for three months to enlisted men of their respective corps or departments serving under the exclusive control of themselves or their subordinates or they may extend to that period furloughs already granted to such enlisted men. For a longer period than three months the authority of the War Department is necessary. Permission to delay may be granted to enlisted men traveling under orders as authorized for furloughs. The conditions under which furloughs to soldiers on reenlistment are authorized will be announced from time to time in orders. 107. The commanding officer of a corps, or of a separate command in the field, may suspend the granting of furloughs in any or all organizations within his command whenever, in his opinion, circumstances render it necessary, or advisable, or for the best interests of the service. 108. The approval of the War Department must be obtained to allow an enlisted man on furlough to leave the United States to go beyond the sea. The limits prescribed will be stated in the furlough, and if exceeded, it may be revoked and the soldier arrested. A company commander in forwarding an application for furlough will state previous absences on furlough that are of record in the company. The authority under which a furlough is granted (whether under Army Regulations or in pursuance of the orders of a superior) will be cited on the face of the furlough by the officer granting it. 109. On the application of a soldier on furlough, made at a military station and showing clearly the urgency of his case, the department commander may order transportation and subsistence to be furnished to enable him to rejoin his proper station, and the company commander will charge the cost thereof against the soldier's pay on the next muster and pay rolls, in accordance with paragraphs 1119 and 1254. The date of the application will be entered on the furlough. 110. Furloughs granted to enlisted men serving in Porto Rico, Hawaii, Guam, the Philippine Islands, Alaska, or at any station beyond the continental limits of the United States, for the purpose of returning thereto, will take effect on the dates they reach the United States, which will be indorsed on the furloughs by the transport quartermaster if travel is by United States transport; otherwise the certificate of the captain, purser, or other proper officer of commercial steamer upon which journey is made, as to date of arrival in home port will be indorsed thereon. The furloughs will direct the soldier to report for duty at the close of the last day thereof at the military post nearest the particular home port from which transports or commercial steamers usually sail for the islands or stations above referred to, and the commanding officers of these posts will assign such enlisted men to organizations under their command for the purpose of subsistence during the time they are detained at their posts, and they will be returned to their proper stations by the first available transport, or commercial steamer if there are no United States transports sailing to destination. Commanding officers will cause notation to be made on the furloughs showing the dates when the men report at their posts and at the proper time will issue the necessary orders directing them to rejoin their stations, reciting therein the date of their arrival in the United States, date of reporting at post, and whether or not commutation of rations has been paid. A copy of the order will be furnished to the soldier and to the commanding officer concerned. The quartermaster and commissary of the transport, or proper officer of commercial steamer on which these enlisted men return, will indorse on such orders the dates during which they were subsisted aboard the transport or commercial steamer. The order will be retained by the enlisted man, who will deliver it to his commanding officer as evidence of his authority to be absent from his post during the time required for travel in rejoining the same. 111. When the station of an enlisted man is changed while he is on furlough, he will, on joining his new station, be entitled to travel allowances for the excess of distance from the place of receipt of the order to the new station over the distance to his old station. A soldier who has returned to the station from which furloughed, his company having changed station during his absence, is entitled to transportation at the expense of the Government from the old to the new station of his company. Charges for transportation furnished to enlisted men on furlough, in pursuance of paragraph 109, will be adjusted in accordance with the requirements of this regulation. 112. Soldiers on furlough will not take with them their arms or accouterments, and no payments will be made to them without authority from the War Department. ARTICLE XVIII. TRANSFER OF ENLISTED MEN. 113. Transfers of enlisted men will be made for cogent reasons only and will be effected as follows: 1. When not involving change of station— (a) Within a regiment, by the regimental commander. (b) Within a detached battalion serving at such a distance from regimental headquarters that more than fifteen days are required for exchange of correspondence by mail, by the battalion commander. (c) Within an artillery district, by the artillery district commander. 2. In cases involving change of station transfers will be made by the regimental commander, the battalion commander, under the circumstances stated in the preceding section, or the artillery district commander, with the approval of the authority competent to direct the necessary travel. 3. From one organization of the line of the Army to another serving (a) Within any post commanded by a general officer, by the post commander. (b) Within any territorial department not part of a division, by the department commander. (c) Within any tactical or territorial division, by the division commander. 4. From the line of the Army to the Hospital Corps, as prescribed in the article relating to the Medical Department. 5. In all other cases, by the War Department. 114. A transfer will take effect on the date of the receipt of the order at the post where the soldier is serving, and a descriptive list and account of pay and clothing showing that date will be forwarded to the commanding officer of the company or detachment to which the soldier is transferred. The actual date of transfer will be stated on the roll upon which the soldier is first paid after transfer. ARTICLE XIX. DESERTERS. 115. When a soldier deserts, his immediate commanding officer wiH at once ascertain if any public property has been lost in consequence thereof, and, if so, will proceed as in the case of property lost or destroyed, and the value of the articles lost will be charged against the deserter on the next muster rolls of his company. The charges will also be made on the pay roll. A copy of the approved report of the surveying officer will accompany the return to which the property pertains. 116. The company or detachment commander will turn over the clothing abandoned by a deserter to the quartermaster, with a certificate showing its condition and the name of the deserter to whom it belonged. In no case will the money or proceeds of the sale of effects of a deserter be turned over to his relatives, nor any payment made therefrom by an officer on any account whatsoever. All other personal effects of a deserter will be disposed of as in the case of unclaimed effects of deceased soldiers-i. e., they will be sold by a council of administration and the proceeds of the sale deposited with a paymaster. The paymaster's receipt for the money deposited as above should clearly specify the nature of the deposit-i. e., whether for the proceeds of sale of effects, or whether for the undrawn pay of a soldier who has deserted-and the officer responsible should furnish the paymaster with the necessary information. Money or other valuables found upon an apprehended deserter are his personal property, and will not be turned over to a paymaster. 117. Whenever a desertion occurs at a post, the commanding officer will cause a number of descriptive lists of the deserter to be prepared on the special form prescribed, copies of which will be sent at once to such marshals, sheriffs, and police officers as the commanding officer may deem proper; also to the officer in charge of any recruiting station at or near the place where the deserter was accepted for enlistment, who will distribute them to the best advantage among civil officers in that vicinity authorized by existing law to summarily arrest deserters from the Army. 118. A post commander will promptly notify The Adjutant-General of the Army, direct, of every desertion from his command, giving the full name, company, and regiment of the deserter, with dates of enlistment and desertion. 119. When a soldier deserts from or when a deserter is received at a post other than the station of his company or detachment, the commanding officer of the post will report the fact to the commanding officer of the company or detachment, with date and place of desertion, apprehension, or surrender, and such additional data as he may possess requisite to the preparation of charges. If, however, a deserter whose company or detachment is stationed in Alaska or beyond the continental limits of the United States is received at a station within the United States, a similar report will also be made to the War Department. 120. A reward of $50 will be paid to any civil officer or civilian for the apprehension and delivery, to the proper military authorities at a military post, of a deserter from the military service, except a deserter from the Philippine Scouts, for whose apprehension and delivery a reward of $20 will be paid. A reward of $50 will also be paid for the apprehension and delivery, to the proper military authorities at a military post, of an escaped military prisoner. No reward will be paid in the case of a deserter or of an escaped military prisoner who is serving in the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps, or in the case of a deserter who, subsequently to his desertion, has been dishonorably discharged from any other enlistment in the Army, or who can claim exemption from punishment under the one hundred and third article of war. The reward will be paid by the Quartermaster's Department and will be in full satisfaction of all expenses for arresting, keeping, and delivering the deserter or escaped military prisoner. The quartermaster making the payment will report that fact to the commanding officer of the organization to which the deserter belongs or to the commanding officer of the military post or prison from which the prisoner escaped. 121. When enlisted men are sent in pursuit of a deserter, the expenses necessarily incurred will be paid whether he be apprehended or not, and will be reported as in payment of rewards. Should a written order be issued for this duty and a transportation request be furnished the party in pursuit, the name, rank, company, and regiment of the deserter will be stated in the order and also noted on the request. 122. A reward will not be paid by a recruiting officer for the delivery of a deserter at a recruiting station, except upon express authority from The Adjutant-General of the Army. In the event of the surrender or of the delivery of a deserter to a recruiting officer the latter will at once telegraph to The |