Army Bill

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26221, 19 September 1950, Page 6

Army Bill

The New Zealand Army Bill introduced in Parliament last week represents formidable tasks of consolidation and law drafting. Besides introducing many new provisions and taking in large parts of New Zealand and Imperial acts, the bill, containing seven parts and 160 clauses, repeals 10 enactments and revokes eight major war-time regulations. The bill’s principal objects are to tidy up the law governing the Army, and where necessary to bring Army law up to date and make it adequate for present conditions. The Army is now governed by New Zealand acts (with amendments and regulations), certain war-time emergency regulations, the Imperial Army Act, Rules of Procedure, and King’s Regulations. This multiplicity of laws

and rules has proved confusing and cumbersome in practice. It was wisely decided, therefore, when New Zealand’s adoption of the Statute of Westminster cleared the way, to produce an entirely new act, which would be complete in itself and independent of United Kingdom legislation, which would legislate for the Army in both peace and war, and which would meet present-day requirements and conditions. The principal modernising measure is the sub-clause which provides that by proclamation the Territorial Force, or any part of it, may be declared liable for continuous service within and outside New Zealand during the continuance of a state of war “or other like “ emergency This does not mean that minors (who will comprise a big proportion of the Territorial Army as the compulsory service scheme gets under way) will be liable for overseas service. A subclause to clause 10 provides that in no case shall a soldier under the age of 20 be liable or be accepted for active service outside New Zealand; and it is further provided that no officer or soldier under 21 shall be liable for service outside New Zealand without his consent, or if either of his parents or his guardians object. Thus, the provisions to mobilise the Territorial Force for war service overseas if necessary will be fully effective only “in time ” —as the explanatory notes to the bill say. In effect this part of the bill is complementary to the compulsory training scherye, which is designed to provide a composite trained force of regulars and territorials available for service some years hence. Any deviation from this scheme—by extending training to men older than the 18-year call-up groups, for example—would be a matter of new policy to be made effective by new legislation or regulation. This position, which has been a little confusing to some who have seen only the brief pub-1 lished summary of the bill, will no doubt be clarified at later stages as the bill passes to law. Its passage through Parliament can be expected to be easy because little of it is contentious. This, of course, does not absolve Parliament from the responsibility to examine carefully and at every point a most important bill. It is fitting to say. finally, that while so massive a bill cannot hope to escape from the defence committees of the Legislature and from its readings and committee stages without amendment, its matter, form, and structure in the first draft speak highly of the thought, study, and skill that have gone into its compilation.