investigation of claims against deportation on the grounds, for instance, of long residence in the Colony.
In one form or another registration of persons and the issue of identity cards has been in vogue in many parts of the world in modern times as a necessary part of any machinery for control and security in conditions of emergency. The Registration of Persons Ordinance enacted in 1949, provides for the registration of persons in the Colony and establishes means for their identification, the primary object of the legislation being to aid any measures which may from time to time be found necessary for the maintenance of law and order and for the distribution of supplies of food or other commodities. The Ordinance obliges, with certain exceptions such as members of His Majesty's Forces, every person being in the Colony or entering the Colony to make application for registration to the Registration Commissioner. The Registration Commissioner is required to maintain a Register in which shall be entered the name and particulars of an applicant and all persons whose names are so entered on the Register are issued with identity cards. For administrative convenience the Ordinance enables registration to be carried out in progressive stages by empowering the Governor to direct by Gazette notification that initially registration shall be effected in relation to categories specified in such Notification.
Legislation designed to provide an organisation to aid, in emergency, in the operation of services essential to the life of the community was enacted under the title of the Essential Services Corps Ordinance, 1949. Under this legislation the Governor is given power to raise and maintain a body of persons by voluntary enrolment to assist in the maintenance or the performance of essential services. Persons enrolled under the provisions of the Ordinance become members of the Essential Services Corps who will be available, upon being called out for actual service, to assist in the maintenance of essential services of the nature specified in the Schedule to the Ordinance.
The need for consolidating and amending the law regulating the granting of pensions, gratuities and other allowances to members of the public service of the Colony had been apparent for a long time. The necessary legislation, which conforms closely with model legislation adopted in the majority of Colonies, was afforded by the enactment of the Pensions Ordinance, 1949. In the category of pensions legislation the Compensation (Special Cases) Ordinance which was enacted in 1949, legislates to empower the grant of compensation to a person injured, or to the dependants of a person who is killed in the discharge of a moral or legal duty to uphold the law in resistance to crime.
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