Any staff member receiving an internal org despatch that has been enroute more than three days (dated the fourth day earlier than date of receipt) must report the matter to the Director of Communications who must thereupon request the Director of Inspection and Reports to investigate and report to Dir Comm and order any resulting Ethics action.

If an internal despatch is received back by the originator more than six days after origin the same procedure must be followed.

If an answer to a despatch is not received back by the originator in a period of six days the same procedure is followed.

These time lags of 3 days and six days are to be considered extreme.

If damage results or expense occurs because an urgent message was not marked RUSH or if a RUSH message did not promptly arrive, the same procedure is followed.

Any external despatch received with a date of 3 days earlier plus ordinary transmission time must be so reported to Dir Comm and the procedure is the same as Internal Despatches.

If a despatch is not answered in six days plus double transmission time, the same procedure is followed.

On Rush Despatches, any despatch older than 1 day is considered stale dated where telegraph or telex exists.

The term "Stale Date" (used previously by banks on cheques) means any despatch or answer that is older than one should reasonably expect when one receives it or any answer that is older in date from origin to answer or answer to receipt than one should reasonably expect.

These regulations apply to all despatches and include all vias.

Locations which are not served by airmail, telex or telegraph are considered extraordinary locations and stale date occurs only when reasonable expectancy is exceeded.

All orders or queries may go on Time Machine.

A junior may place queries or info on a Time Machine to a senior and may complain to Dir Comm re stale date.

A junior Org may place queries or info going to a senior Org on a Time Machine and may complain to Dir Comm re any stale date.

Anyone sending a stale date complaint to the Dir Comm must first answer or handle any despatch he is holding and send it to the Dir Comm with its answer.

Dir Comm copies or xeroxes the original and the answer promptly and sends the original on to its next recipient and uses the copy only for investigation.

Answer notes on despatches and answers must hereafter be dated by the answerer.

All despatches are of course dated by the originator.