EMERGENCY REGULATIONS ISSUED

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 226, 19 June 1940, Page 11

EMERGENCY REGULATIONS ISSUED

Provision For Compulsory National Service POWERS OF CONTROL OVER INDUSTRY Authority To Demand Contributions To Special War Loan Wide powers of 'control over all phases of national life, incltid iti«- men money and property, are given the Government y regu a tions approved Yesterday by the Executive Council. Ihe regulations have been made under the Emergency Regulations Act and its amend ment passed by Parliament nearly three weeks ago. The most important arc the National Service Emergency Regulations, -which provide for compulsory national service on the part o all persons in the Dominion who are 16 years of age and over, t hese persons will constitute a general reserve, from which reseivists n ay be called up for service overseas, for home defence, or for other national service of which they are capable.. , • Regulations dealing with finance provide tor compulsory contributions to a War Purposes Loan. . , The Government is given power in other regulations to contio industries and to requisition or purchase property The Attorney-General is given power to declare any lion to bo subversive if he is satisfied that the may be injurious to the public safety or are likely to influence public or the authorities by unconstitutional means. Restrictions are imposed on the articles enemy aliens may bar e in their possession, and special tribunals are to be appointed to deal with the internment of aliens. . . There are also regulations providing for the organization of land and materials with a view to ensuring the maximum supply ot all primary products urgently required by Great Britain and New ZC<l, The Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, stated that the regulations covered the full scope of the powers which tbe'Government previously announced would be taken to give effect to its all-in policy.

Compulsory national service on the part o£ all persons resident in the Dominion who are 10 years of age and over is provided for in the National Service Emergency Regulations. These persons will constitute what is known

as the general reserve, the register of which will he compiled from the registration forms furnished for the purposes of the Social Security Register. Persons who have so registered will be automatically included in the register of the. General Reserve and are not required at this stage to take any further steps in the matter, but any persons who have not done so should register without delay.

Reservists may be required to join the armed forces for duty overseas or for home service, or they may be called upon to undertake any other kind or national service within the Dominion, which is essential and which they are capable of performing. Calling-Up Procedure. The procedure for calling men up for service with the armed forces will be mainly on the lines of that followed during the war of 1914-18, and may be briefly summarized as follows: — The register will - be divided into classes according to the conjugal status, domestic responsibilities, age, locality of residence of reservists, or otherwise as the Minister may decide, and anyone or more of such classes may at any time he enrolled by direction of a Proclamation by the Governor-General. On this being done, the Director of National Service will proceed to issue certificates of enrolment to all reservists in the enrolled class or classes whose names appear in the Register. These certificates should reach the hands of the reservists concerned within about 14 days of the date of the proclamation and, as it is an offence for a reservist of an enrolled class to be without a certificate after 28 days thereafter, any man who has not received his certificate, say, a week before the expiration of that time, should communicate by letter with the Director of National Service. Certificates must be produced, on request, to employers, police officers, or other authorized persons. It is an offence on the part of an employer to employ or to retain in his service for more than seven days any man who belongs to an enrolled class of the reserve who is not enrolled therein. Change of Address. Every reservist of an enrolled class who changes his residential address between the date of registering for purposes of the Social Security Register and the date of the proclamation must within seven days of the latter date notify the Director of National Service of such change, while any such reservist who subsequently changes his address must notify the director within seven days of the change. Reservists of classes the enrolment of which has been directed may he .selected for service with the armed forces by means of ballots and, on being so selected, will be deemed to be transferred from the reserve to such forces. A list of reservists drawn in each ballot will be published in the Gazette. Provision is made for reservists drawn in ballots to appeal against their being required to join the armed forces and, in certain cases, appeals on their behalf may be made by their employers or by the Crown or its representatives. Grounds of appeal prescribed Include undue hardship, incorrect inclusion in ballot, essentiality of employment and. conscientious objection to undertaking combatant service.

Hearing of Appeals. Appeals will be heard by appeal boards of three members appointed by the Governor-General. Notices of appeal. must be sent (by registered letter) to the chairman of the board for the district in which the reservist concerned is resident, within ten days of the publication of the Gazette notice by which the appellant was called up for service. On the allowance of an appeal, the appellant will be deemed to be retransferred from the armed forces to the reserve, provided that if the appeal has been allowed on the grounds that the appellant is engaged in an essential occupation he may be again called up for service immediately he ceases to be engaged in that occupation. Recruits will be medically examined by medical boards composed of two or more medical practitioners. Recruits who have appealed will, as far as possible, be medically examined before their appeals arc heard so that, if they are found to be medically unlit it may not be necessary to proceed with the appeals. Voluntary enlistment may at any time be discontinued by proclamation either in respect of specified districts or throughout the Dominion or in respect of certain classes or all Classes of the reserve. Offences against the regulations are punishable by imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months.or a line not. exceeding f 100 or by both such line and imprisonment.