"As I understand it, the only officer now in the MarineHospital Service who has been appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate is the Supervising Surgeon General. This does not affect him at all. * 66 * * * My understanding is that the head of the service is the only one the bill does not affect, he being an officer appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and as I understand it, the sole object is to allow subordinates instead of being appointed as now, by the Secretary of the Treasury, to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. * * * * * "As I understand it, this is putting into the form of a law what is simply at the present time a regulation of the department. If I am correctly informed as to the regulations, these officers may be discharged summarily at any time." It thus seems clear that the general purpose of the act of 1889 was not to change the method of appointing the Supervising Surgeon General, nor to disturb the distinction recognized by the regulations of 1879 between that officer and "the medical officers" of the service, but merely to legalize the position of the latter, to raise them to the grade of regularly commissioned officers, and to fix in the law the regulations as to their promotion. A careful consideration of all the provisions of the act itself leads to the same conclusion. Evidently the first section of the act does not apply to the Supervising Surgeon General. He was already "appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate," and the examination provided for in that section of those appointed under the provisions of the act can hardly be meant for him, since he prepares the rules under which it is to be conducted. If the Supervising Surgeon General be not included in the first section, it is difficult to see why he should be included in the second. That section is evidently merely a condensed statement of the regulations of 1879, upon the subject of original appointments, examination, and promo tion, and we have seen that the Supervising Surgeon General was not subject to the analogous provisions of those regulations. The examinations provided for in the second section are evidently the same as those referred to in the first section, to be conducted under rules of his making. The statute, as did the regulations, provides specifically for two classes of promotions, viz, assistant surgeons to passed assistant surgeons, and passed assistant surgeons to surgeons, but is silent as to any promotion of a surgeon to the grade of Supervising Surgeon General. Moreover, immediately after the passage of the act, new regulations were adopted in 1889, approved by the Secretary of the Treasury and by the President, which must be taken to give a contemporaneous executive construction of the act. Those regulations again clearly indicate that the Supervising Surgeon General is, as to his appointment, governed only by the regulations, while the medical officers alone are subject to the provisions of the act of January 4, 1889. Paragraph 2 of those regulations says: "The Supervising Surgeon General will be selected from among the surgeons when a vacancy occurs in that rank;" while under the heading "Medical Corps," paragraph 7 states, "The following is the act governing appointments;" and it then sets out in full the act of January 4, 1889. Congress itself has apparently given the same construction to the act of January 4, 1889, for in the act of July 1, 1902, to increase the efficiency of the Marine-Hospital Service (32 Stat. 712), in section 1, it is said: 66* * * the Supervising Surgeon General and the officers now or hereafter commissioned under the act of January fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled 'An act to regulate appointments in the MarineHospital Service of the United States,' and acts amendatory thereof, shall hereafter be known as the Surgeon General, surgeons, passed assistant surgeons, and assistant surgeons of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service of the United States." This language seems to distinguish between the "Supervising Surgeon General" on the one side, and the "officers" on the other, and to imply that the latter only are subject to the provisions of the act of January 4, 1889. If this were not the meaning of the first section of the act of July 1, 1902, the natural language would have been "the Supervising Surgeon General and the other officers," etc. For the reasons stated, I am of the opinion that the law does not restrict the President in selecting a Surgeon General of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service to the list of commissioned officers in the Medical Corps of that service. Respectfully, WILLIAM R. HARR, THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. RETURN OF GOVERNMENT CONTRACT-DISCLOSURE OF CONFIDENTIAL PLANS. While the sufficiency of the return of a contract by the Secretary of the Navy is not a question of law arising in the administration of the Department of the Interior, and therefore is not one upon which the Attorney General is required to render an opinion, it is proper that the Secretary of the Interior should be advised whether the case submitted presents a violation of the statute since it is his duty to call apparent violations of the statute to the attention of the Department of Justice. In making the return of a contract on behalf of the Government, as provided for in sections 3744 and 3745 of the Revisel Statutes, it is not required to accompany such contract with copies of plans that are confidential and can not be divulged without detriment to the public interests, and the affidavit may except such plans from the return. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, SIR: Sections 3744 and 3745 of the Revised Statutes of the United States provide: "SEC. 3744. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, of the Secretary of the Navy, and of the Secretary of the Interior, to cause and require every contract made by them severally on behalf of the Government, or by their officers under them appointed to make such contracts, to be reduced to writing, and signed by the contracting parties with their names at the end thereof; a copy of which shall be filed by the officer making and signing the contract in the Returns Office of the Department of the Interior, as soon after the contract is made as possible, and within thirty days, together with all bids, offers, and proposals to him made by persons to obtain the same, and with a copy of any advertisement he may have published inviting bids, offers, or proposals for the same. All the copies and papers in relation to each contract shall be attached together by a ribbon and seal, and marked by numbers in regular order, according to the number of papers composing the whole return. "SEC. 3745. It shall be the further duty of the officer, before making his return, according to the preceding section, to affix to the same his affidavit in the following form, sworn to before some magistrate having authority to administer oaths: 'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that the copy of contract hereto annexed is an exact copy of a contract made by me personally with ; that I made the same fairly without any benefit or advantage to myself, or allowing any such benefit or advantage corruptly to the said or any other person; and that the papers accompanying include all those relating to the said contract, as required by the statute in such case made and provided.'" In your letter of the 12th instant you request my opinion. whether the following affidavit by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, in relation to a certain contract with the Midvale Steel Co., which has been sent you for filing, is in compliance with the law: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that the copy of contract hereto annexed is an exact copy of a contract made by me personally with the Midvale Steel Company, represented by Chas. J. Harrah, as president, that I made the same fairly; without any benefit or advantage to myself, or allowing any such benefit or advantage corruptly to the said The Midvale Steel Company, Chas. J. Harrah, or any other person; and that the papers accompanying include all those relating to the said contract, as required by the statute in such case made and provided, with the exception of certain plans that are confidential and can not be divulged at this time without detriment to the public interests, and of the proposals for said forgings, which were filed with contract dated October 17, 1911, with the Crucible Steel Company of America, for furnishing 5-inch gun forgings." The sufficiency of the return of a contract under the above sections is not a question of law arising in the administration of your department, and therefore is not one upon which the Attorney General is required by section 356 of the Revised Statutes to render an opinion. The duty of reducing to writing and making a proper return to the Returns Office of the Department of the Interior of all contracts made by the heads of departments referred to in section 3744 rests upon each with respect to his own contracts, and the Secretary of the Interior has no jurisdiction over the contracts entered into by the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy because of the fact that returns are to be made to an office in his department. Section 3746 of the Revised Statutes, however, makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment, for an officer who makes any contract to fail or neglect to make return of the same according to the provisions of the two preceding sections, unless from unavoidable accident or causes not within his control. It is therefore your duty to call apparent violations of this statute to the attention of this department, in order that, if the law has been violated, appropriate criminal proceedings may be instituted for its enforcement. This being so, it is proper that I should advise you whether the case submitted presents a violation of the statute, in order that you may know how to proceed in this respect in the future. It appears from the affidavit of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy that all the papers relating to the contract with the Midvale Steel Co. have been sent to the Returns Office of your department," with the exception of certain plans that are confidential and can not be divulged at |