Relative links setting being ignored.

I have no fancy settings - almost all default...

I am creating to a sub-directory on the current site (http(s)://(etc)/staticsite

But although I have checked 'relative links' - despite this all links are fully specified 'http(s)://(etc....).

Setting a 'site url' means that URL is prepended to all links.... and adding a HREF base adds that tag, but makes no difference to the embeded URLs.