WILLS OF SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 121, 15 February 1941, Page 10

WILLS OF SOLDIERS

When -‘Active Service” Begins

WHAT LAW PROVIDES

In the making of soldiers' wills the question arises of when a man becomes a "soldier on active service.’ and information on the point has been sought by a correspondent: in the Christchurch "Press,” "Mater, ’ who wrote: “Can you inform yout readcis. iat When a member of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, whether volunteer or conscript, . becomes 'a soldier on active service”; (bt When a soldier joining any branch of the air forces, becomes a ‘soldier on active service”; Tbe matter is. of considerable interest to persons with sons under the age of 21 who desire to make wills. Apparently the provisions of Tbe Expeditionary Forces Act, 1915, and the amending legislation, applied only to the last war. ’ When this letter was referred to Army Headquarters) Christchurch, it was stated that a member of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Forcft became "a soldier on active service” by notification iu routine orders, usually one or two days before proceeding on embarkation leave. The minimum age of enlistment for tbe Expeditionary Force was 21. The Wills Act of 1837, according to a recent article in the “New eZaland Law Journal,” is in force in New Zealand, and section 11, following the wording of the Statute of Frauds, 1667. says : ‘Any soldier being in actual military service or any mariner or seaman at sea may dispose of his personal estate as he might have done before the. making of this act.’

“What of the soldier inside New Zealand?” it is asked. Considering tbe new methods of warfare .... a man might be on actual military service from the moment of bis enlistment, in the case of a man living in Wellington who was called ou to go to the fortifications defending Wellington he would be ‘iu expeditione’ or ‘in actual military service.’” Statutes extending the Act in New Zealand are then outlined. Section 11 is extended to cover members of the naval and marine forces not only when at sea but when circumstances are such that: if they were soldiers they would be "in actual military service,” says the “Law Journal.” And Regulation lays down that the term "soldier” includes any member of His Majesty’s Air Forces ; “Any man in His Majesty’s Forces raised in New Zealand, who has joined those forces in New Zealand, shall be deemed to have been at all times while out of New Zealand during any war a soldier in actual military service,” say the statutes. Three other points are cleared up in this article: (1) actual military service begins on receipt of orders to go abroad and serve; (2) it is not sufficient for there to be a state of war; there must be a state of war and the man must be in some place for the purpose of that war; (3) no will made by any member of the forces shall be deemed invalid by reason of his being under 21.

The words “in actual military service” are used throughout and not “on active service.”