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29. The second clause is based on Clause 19 of the Aerial Navigation (draft) Bill, 1910, and follows the precedent of Section 181 of the Customs Consolidation Act, 1876.* It is intended to empower the naval and military authorities to make the necessary signals to aircraft contravening the law, and, if the signals are disregarded, to fire on them or take such military action as may be necessary to cause the aircraft to descend.
30. On first considering this question, the Sub-Committee came to the conclusion that the method of obtaining this power, to which least parliamentary difficulty would attach, would be to rely on "The Official Secrets Act, 1911." Section 1 (2) of this Act provides that any person, who for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State approaches or is in the neighbourhood of and enters any prohibited places shall be guilty of a felony, and Section 6 provides that any person reasonably suspected of having committed, or having attempted to commit, or being about to commit, an offence against the Act, may be apprehended and detained in the same manner as a person who is found committing a felony. It appeared to the Sub-Committee that the powers contained in these clauses would, if applied by the Bill, enable a person approaching a prohibited place in an aircraft to be fired on if necessary.
31. This proposal was put forward in an Interim Report, dated the 14th December, 1912 (C.I.D. paper 165-B), but the Committee of Imperial Defence, at the 121st Meeting, while agreeing that there was an undoubted case for legislation, recommended that the Bill should be re-drafted, so as to include the direct powers required to be taken for arrest in explicit terms.
32. The second clause of the draft Bill has therefore been amended to meet the view of the Committee of Imperial Defence.
33. A proposed draft of the Regulations to be issued by the Admiralty and War Office under the authority of the Bill is attached in Schedule VI to this Report.
34. The solution of the question of the control of aircraft is beset with many difficulties, but the Sub-Committee believe that, within the limits of a short Bill, and the consequent Regulations which it will be possible to issue thereunder, the measures they propose are those calculated, under existing conditions, best to safe- guard the interests of national defence without inflicting excessive restrictions on the development of flying in this country.
War.
35. In the course of an investigation by another Sub-Committee it was pointed out that an enemy might frustrate the objects of telegraph, wireless, press, ard postal censorship, and even arrêt de prince by using aircraft to convey messages out of the country. The Sub-Committee think that this can best be prevented by complete official supervision of all flights in this country while censorship is in force, by the licensing of pilots, and by obtaining power to requisition all aircraft.
36. As regards the requisitioning of aircraft, the Sub-Committee are informed that in reply to an inquiry by the Air Committee the Treasury Solicitor (Schedule VII) has expressed the opinion that it would not be lawful to requisition privately owned aeroplanes as carriages "under Section 115 (2) of the Army Act.
But there may
be no reason, writes the Treasury Solicitor, to regard airships and aeroplanes as essentially outside the general policy of the section, and I think therefore that, following the precedent of 1909), when it was amended so as to make it clearly
* Section 181 of the Customs Consolidation Act :—“ If any ship or boat liable to seizure or examination under the Customs Act shall not bring to when required so to do, the master of such ship or boat shall forfeit the sum of 207 ; and on such ship or boat being chased by any vessel or boat in Her Majesty's navy, having the proper pendant and ensign of Her Majesty's ships hoisted, or by any vessel or boat duly employed for the prevention of smuggling, having a proper pendant and ensign hoisted, it shall be lawful for the captain, master, or other person having the charge or command of such vessel or boat in Her Majesty's navy, or employed as aforesaid (first causing a gun to be fired as a signal), to fire at or into such ship or boat, and such captain, master, or other person acting in his aid or by his direction shall be and is hereby indemnified and discharged from any indictment, penalty, action, or other proceeding for so doing."
The proper pendant and ensign for a vessel or boat employed for the prevention of smuggling are prescribed by an Order in Council, dated the 9th July, 1864.
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