8. Whenever an officer shall apply for a renewal of his license for the same grade, the presentation of the old license with oath of officer shall be considered sufficient evidence of his title to renewal, which old license and oath of office shall be retained by the inspectors upon their official files as the evidence upon which the license was renewed. Whenever a licensed officer makes application for a renewal of his license, he shall appear in person before some board of local inspectors or supervising inspector, except that upon renewal of such license for the same grade, when the distance from any local board or supervising inspector is such as to put the person holding the same to great inconvenience and expense to appear in person, he may, upon taking oath of office before any person authorized to administer oaths, and forwarding the same, together with the license to be renewed, to the local board or supervising inspector of the district in which he resides or is employed, have the same renewed by the said inspectors, if no valid reason to the contrary be known to them; and they shall attach such oath to the stub end of the license, which is to be retained on file in their office: _Provided, however_, That any officer holding a license, and who is engaged in a service which necessitates his continuous absence from the United States, may make application in writing for renewal and transmit the same to the board of local inspectors, with its certificate of citizenship, if naturalized, and a statement of the applicant, verified before a consul or other officer of the United States authorized to administer an oath, setting forth the reasons for not appearing in person; and upon receiving the same the board of local inspectors that originally issued such license shall renew the same and shall notify the applicant of such renewal, and no license as master, mate, or pilot of any class of vessel shall be renewed without a certificate that the color sense of the applicant is normal. (R. S., 4405, 4438.) Amendments of general rules and regulations, ocean and coastwise. _Resolved_: That sections 20 to 30, both inclusive, Rule V, General Rules and Regulations, Ocean and Coastwise, be struck out and the following substituted therefor: Substituting service in next lower grade for raise of grade. 20. Except as hereinafter provided, an applicant who has served in a lower grade than that for which he is licensed may substitute service in the grade next below that for which he is licensed, which service shall count one-half in computing experience for raise of grade. For example, if an applicant holds chief mate's license and has served nine months as chief mate and six months as second mate, the six months' service as second mate shall count as three months as chief mate in computing experience. Master of ocean steam vessels.