15652
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
No. 157. (DOMINIONS.)
LAW OFFICERS AND JUDGE ADVOCATE to ADMIRALTY. [Dominion Naval Forces: Form of Executive Officer's Commission.] Counsel are requested:-
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(1) To settle a common form of Executive Officer's Commission for use in connection with the whole of the Naval Forces of the Empire, indi- cating what, if any, local modifications may be desirable;
(2) To advise as to the steps, if any necessary, to be taken before such Form
of Commission may be brought into use; and
(3) Generally on the case.
Opinion-
It seems to us to be of great importance that all the Commissions in the Naval Forces of the Empire should be as nearly as possible in identical terms, not because such Commissions would bring into existence any rights of command which would not otherwise exist (all such questions being settled by the agreements entered into with the Dominions during the last Imperial Conference and the legislation consequent thereon), but because such Commissions would be the symbol that the officer was in the fullest sense the officer of an Imperial Force, and had, in case of need, behind him the whole of that Force.
proper The proposal herein contained has therefore for its object to confer on the authority, in each of the component parts of the Empire, power to issue Commissions effective in any part of the Naval Forces of the Empire without in any way inter- fering with the powers already existing to issue Commissions for service either in the Royal Navy or in one or other of the Dominion Fleets.
If it is carried out it would, on the one hand, confer on the Governors-General the power to issue Commissions which in case of need would be effective for service in the Royal Navy and, on the other hand, would enable the Admiralty to issue Commissions effective for service in the Dominion Navies. Apart from the reason of sentiment above referred to this would have the practical advantage that if the Dominions had, in pursuance of the agreement, placed their ships at the disposal of the Admiralty and by reason of casualties occasioned by a fleet action it became necessary to transfer officers from a ship of one Dominion to that of another or from Dominion ships to ships of the Royal Navy or vice versâ, no new Commissions would be necessary.
An Order in Council, which should recite the establishment of navies by the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of Canada and the possibility of the establishment of other Navies within the Empire, should authorise the Admiralty and the Governor-General of any Dominion to issue Commissions in the prescribed "and should define that expression to form for service in "His Majesty's Fleet,' include as well the Royal Navy as the fleets provided and maintained by any self- governing Dominion.
The Order in Council should provide that all Commissions already issued, whether by the Admiralty or in accordance with the law in force in any Dominion, should be deemed to have been issued for service in His Majesty's Fleet.
No alteration in the Admiralty Patent would be necessary as such an Order in Council would confer an additional power on the Admiralty, but with regard to the Governors-General, provision should be made either by Patent, Commission, or Instructions in accordance with established practice, for the exercise of the power.
As this is a matter which must be carried out by negotiation with the Dominions concerned we do not consider it desirable at the present time to settle the actual form of the Commission, but suggest that it should be as near as possible in the form at present in use in the Royal Navy, which has at least antiquity and a glorious history to recommend it.
RUFUS D. ISAACS. JOHN SIMON.
R. B. D. ACLAND.
Law Officers' Department,
20th April, 1912.
(26318-2.) Wt. 01-394. 25. 9/12, D & B
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