REGENCY BILL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 50, 29 January 1937, Page 7

REGENCY BILL

TERMS ANNOUNCED. DEFINITION OF FUNCTIONS. QUALIFICATIONS LIMITED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official AVireless.) Received January 29, 11.24 a.in. RUGBY, Jan. 28. The text of the Regency Bill, the second reading of which will be moved by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on Tuesday, has been issued. The Bill sets up machinery for the performance of Royal functions by the Regent in the name and on behalf of the'Sovereign in certain circumstances, a.nd for the delegation of Royal functions to Counsellors of State in certain other circumstances.

The Bill also proposes that, in the event of a Regency being necessary, the Regent be the person next in the line of succession to the Crown and not disqualified. A person shall be disqualified if he is not a British subject of full age and resident in the United Kingdom, or is a person who would, under Section 2 of the Act of Settlement, be incapable of inheriting possession of and enjoying the Crown. Section 3 of the Act of Settlement shall apply in the case of a Regent as it applies in the case of the Sovereign. If any person who would, at the commencement of the Regency, have become Regent but for the fact that ho was not then of full age becomes of full age during the Regency, he shall, if he is not otherwise disqualified, thereupon become Regent. UNDER AGE CLAUSE. There will be a Regent, firstly, when the bovereignt is unuer 18 at tfie time ol his accession, and the itegent will perform all the Royal functions until die .sovereign attains the age of i 8; and, seconuiy, during any period when the Sovereign has been declared to be sulfering Horn an infirmity of mind or body winch renders film wholly incapable or perrorming the itoyal functions. tr, during the Regency, the Itegent himself becomes wfiolly incapacitated by an infirmity of mind or body, the person next in tile line of succession to tfie Throne who is not disqualified will become Regent. The terms of the Bill dealing with the appointment of a Regent in the event of the Sovereign t s infirmity provide that if the following persons or any three or more of them, namely, 'tiie wife or husband of the Sovereign, the person who (excluding any persons disqualified) is next in the line of succession, the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Chief Justice of England and the Master of the Rolls,-Meclure in writing that they are satisfied, on the evidence of physicians or otherwise, that the Sovereign is, by reason of bis infirmity of mind or body, wholly incapable tor the time being of performing the Royal functions, then until it is declared in a like manner that His Majesty, has so far recovered his health as to warrant the resumption of the Royal functions, those functions shall be performed in t-lie name of and on behalf of the Sovereign by the Regent. ABSENCE OF THE SOVEREIGN. Declarations under this ' section of the Bill shall be made to the Privy Council and communicated to the Governments of His Majesty’s Dominions and to the Government of India. The Bill further proposes that the Sovereign or, during a Regency, the Regent, may in order to prevent delay or difficulty in the despatch of public business by Letters Patent delegate to the Counsellors of State such of the Royal functions as may be specified in the circumstances indicated, namely: Firstly, an illness of the Sovereign or the Regent not amounting to such infirmity of mind or body as renders aim wholly incapable of performing the Royal functions; and, secondly, the absence or intended absence of the Sovereign or the Regent from the United Kingdom. Such delegation of powers is to continue only for the period of illness or absence. PRINCESS ELIZABETH’S RIGHT. Received January 29, 10.15 a.m. LONDON, Jan. 28. In the House of Commons, Sir John Simon (Home Secretary) informed Mr G. C. M. Mander that there was no reason to amend the Act of Settlement to ensure that Princess Elizabeth would be the sole heir. She did not share it jointly with Princess Margaret. There was no doubt that Princess Elizabeth, in the present circumstances, would succeed as the sole heir.