TERMS OF REGENCY LEGISLATION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20639, 30 January 1937, Page 11

TERMS OF REGENCY LEGISLATION

INTERESTING BILL FOR PARLIAMENT DUKE OF GLOUCESTER MAY BE REGENT British Official Wireless (Received January 29, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, January 28. The text of the Regency Bill, the second reading of which will be moved by the Prime Minister (Mr Stanley Baldwin) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, has been issued. The Bill sets up machinery for the performance of Royal functions by a Regent in the name and on behalf of the sovereign in certain circumstances, and for the delegation of Royal functions to Counsellors of State in certain other circumstances. The Bill proposes that in the event of a Regency being necessary, the i : , , : i i ■ , ; : i i

Regent should be the person next in 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 or 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 a sovereign. If any person who would at the commencement of a Regency have become Regent,, but for the fact that he was not then of full age becomes of full age during the Regency, he shall, if he is not otherwise disqualified, thereupon become Regent. There shall be a Regent. (1) When the sovereign is under eighteen at the time of his accession, and the Regent will perform all Royal functions until the sovereign attains the age of eighteen. (2) During any period when the sovereign has been declared to be suffering from an infirmity of mind or body which renders him wholly incapable of performing Royal functions. If during the Regency the Regent himself becomes wholly incapacitated by infirmity of mind or body, the person next in line of succession to the throne who is not disqualified will become Regent. Appointment of Regent The terms of the Bill dealing with the appointment of a Regent in the event of the sovereign’s infirmity provide: “If the following persons or any three or more of them, namely, the wife or husband of the sovereign, the person who, excluding any persons disqualified,

is next in line of succession, the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Chief Justice of England, the Master of the Rolls, declare in writing that they are satisfied on the evidence of physicians, or otherwise, that the sovereign is by reason of infirmity of mind or body wholly incapable for the time of performing Royal functions, then, until it is declared in a like manner that his Majesty has so far recovered his health as to warrant a resumption of Royal functions, those functions shall be performed in the name and on behalf of the sovereign by the Regent. A declaration under this section of the Bill sl.all 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 Counsellers of State such of the Royal functions as may be specified in the circumstances indicated, namely: (1) The illness of the sovereign or Regent not amounting to such infirmity of mind or body as renders him wholly Incapable of performing Royal functions, and (2) the absence or intended absence of the sovereign or Regent from the United Kingdom. Such delegation of powers is to continue only for the period of illness or absence. The Bill was read a first time in the House of Commons. The Measure Explained The Regency Bill means that, were Princess Elizabeth to succeed to the Throne before she reaches the age of 18 the Duke of Gloucester would be Regent. It had been previously suggested that the Regent should be Queen Elizabeth. The Duke of Gloucester will also be Reger, i should King George become incapacitated, but I Princess Elizabeth will become elig'ble as Regent on reaching the age of 21. The Bill does not provide for the appointment of a Regent during a minor illness of the Sovereign or his absence abroad. In either of these circumstances, the King will appoint a Council of State, which in the present circumstances will consist of Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Gloucester the Duke of Kent, the Princess Royal and the Duke of Connaught. The Bill differs from the Act passed on the accession of King George, which provided for the King’s wife, Queen Mary, to be Regent. In substituting the Duke of Gloucester for Queen Elizabeth, Clause VI. provides that the Sovereign when out of the country, may convey instructions by telegraph, thus excluding the Empire telephone service. It is understood that the reason is there must be a record of the instructions given. Status of Dominions •'The Times” points out that the Regency Bill, in accordance with the Statute of Westminster, provides for a Regency of the United Kingdom and the Crown Colonies alone and, not like the Act of 1910 of the British Empire. It does not alter “the law touching the i succession to the Throne or the Royal ; style and titles.” Therefore the estab- , lished constitutional position does not , require the simultaneous assent of all : the self-governing Dominions. The > natural procedure is for each of them i to legislate for a Regent of their own ■ territory and it may be supposed that they will concur in so legislating that , the powers of a Regency everywhere ; in the British Empire will, when re- ■ qulred, be vested in the same person. : His functions oversea would, in any s case, be practically limited to appointing a new Governor-General.