112487-1927-Supplementary-Draft-Bills--Prisons-Amendment-Volunteer-Amendment — Page 7

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(6) An Army Service Corps Cadre.

(e) A Lights Section Cadre

(d) A Reserve of Officers,

The members of these auxiliary units will not be required to undergo any training, but they will be liable to be called up for actual military service. The Army Service Corps Cadre and the Lights Section Cadre will consist of specially selected individuals whose previous training has rendered them fit to perform such duties as they may be required to perform if the Cadre are called out for actual military service, Broadly speaking, the members of the auxiliary units will be persons who are prepared to be called out for actual military service in case of necessity but who will have no duties unless they are so called up. As they will have no duties, it is proposed that service in the auxiliary units will not count towards the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers' Decoration or Long Service Medal, but that membership will so count in any period during which the units are called out for actual military service. This particular provision will have to be made by an amendment of the regulations under the Royal Warrant relating to the Decoration and Medal, and this amendment will have to be submitted for His Majesty's approval. It may be added that there is a Reserve of Officers at present, though it is not classed as an auxiliary unit. A draft of the pro- posed new regulations under the principal Ordinance is published at the same time as this bill. The question of auxiliary units will be found to be referred to in those regulations.

4. Section 5 of the principal Ordinance provides that any volunteer may quit his corps on giving four- teen days notice in writing, delivering up his equip- ment, and paying any money due by him. It also provides that every volunteer shall be deemed to have engaged to serve for a period of three years. It is not obvious, though it may on examination be clear, that the obligation to give notice continues even after the expiration of the original period of three years, Paragraphs (7) and (e) of section 4 of this Ordinance are intended to make the point obvious and quite clear. Section 4 also provides that the three year period shall not apply to the members of the auxiliary units, who will accordingly be at liberty to resign at any time upon giving fourteen days notice in writing.

5. Section 16 (1) (4) of the principal Ordinance gives a certain power to arrest any officer or volunteer who disobeys any lawful order, or is guilty of mis- conduct, on any parade. The obvious intention is to provide a remedy for the possible though unlikely case of the flouting of authority on a parade. The paragraph in question, however, is defective in that it gives the power of arrest only to "the officer then in command of the corps or any superior officer in whose command the corps then is ". The officer in command of the corps is the Commandant and he may not be present on the parade. Accordingly paragraph (b) of section 5 of this Ordinance gives the power of arrest to the officer in command of the parade, or any superior officer under whose command the parade then is. Any officer or volunteer so arrested must be released at the end of the march or duty or exercise during which he was placed under arrest. Paragraph (c) oť section 5 therefore, by way of extra caution, provides that such release from arrest shall be without prejudice to any subsequent proceedings for the discharge of the individual in question from the corps, Paragraph (a) of section 5 endeavours to effect a slight improvement in the numbering of the paragraphs of section 16 (1) of the principal Ordinance.