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with reference to defence operations all persons forming the civil population are to be considered I cannot find that these as camp followers etc. memoranda were ever sent to the War Office and no action seems to have been taken on the paper other than that concerned with the general Order in
Council (see 598 of 1896).
As to the general papers,
investigation has
been somewhat hampered by the impossibility of finding any of the Defence schemes referred to in the draft on 598 of 1896 except that for Hong Kong which contains nothing material. On No. 10 of 1894 Ceylon there is, however, a memorandum by the C.D.C. which contains at the top of page 2 a very useful statement of the C.D.C's intentions in this matter.
The memorandum states that there is no intention on the part of the C.D.C. to suggest that the Governor should in the smallest degree be superseded by the Ceneral Officer Commanding, that the civil power must be supreme, the Governor on his part giving the fullest support to the General Officer Commanding, he is with his professional Adviser and Executive Officer in all matters relating to the defence of thes Colony. The next paragraph also is helpful, and
on No. 11 eylon the C.D.C. state that the proposed
Order in Council is not intended to do more than
provide for the acquisition of special powers
by the General Officer Commanding for securing
sites for works, occupation of buildings and the acquiring of supplies and transport; all these being
minor measures which directly concern the military
action of the General Officer formanding in wartime.
The memorandum concludes with the statement that as
regards martial law the exercise of any exceptional
powers
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rowers by the military authorities in case of emergency can only be under the authority of the Governor.
I think that these passages give us sufficient ground to carry the argument based on the words "for the purposes of the Army Act" a step further and to say that the intention of Article 3 (1) of the Order in Council was only to transfer to the General Officer Commanding authority over the civil population in matters immediately connected with military operations, and that subject to this the in- tention is to leave the authority of the civil Govern- ment unimpaired, and indeed I think some such re- striction is necessary in any case for the application of the provisions of the Army Act to Camp-followers, se will be seen if one examines the penal provisions of the Act, which are capable of such application, in
detail.
Take for instance Section 9, (Disobedience to lawful commands) on which the War Office argument
as to the power of search depends. It is admitted in note 6 to that section (p.367 of Lanual of Military Law) that the command, to be lawful, "must be one re- lating to military duty" In the case of a civilian therefore the command must clearly be issued under circumstances which bring him into actual contact with military operations or discipline. Then again Section 10, as to quarrels and affrays, Section 19 as to
drunkenness, Section 36 as to duelling and suicide, must also be limited in this way for the purpose of
application to civilians, who are not, as are Camp-
followers,
:
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