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14

Control of publication of naval and military information while the Act is in force.

Power to

put Act in force by

Order in Council.

Extent and

application of Act.

Short title.

Appendix I.

DRAFT OF A BILL TO PROVIDE FOR THE CONTROL OF THE PUBLICATION OF NAVAL AND MILITARY INFORMATION IN CASES OF EMERGENCY.

BE it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:-

1.-(1.) While this Act is in force no information with respect to troops, ships, aircraft, or war material, or to the plans of the naval or military authorities, or to any measures taken for or connected with the defence of the country, and no statement, comment, or suggestion calculated directly or indirectly to convey any such informa- tion, shall be published, except where the information is furnished or approved by or on behalf of the Admiralty or the Army Council or is sent during a time of war under censorship from the seat of war.

(2.) The owner, publisher, printer, and editor of any newspaper, magazine, book, pamphlet, or other publication by means of which any information, statement, comment, or suggestion is knowingly published in contravention of this Act, and any other person who sells any newspaper, magazine, book, pamphlet, or other publication knowing it to contain, or who is otherwise knowingly responsible for the publication of, any such information, statement, comment, or suggestion, shall severally be liable in respect of each offence, on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding a thousand pounds, or to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding twelve months.

A court of quarter sessions or Sheriff Court in Scotland shall not have jurisdiction to try a person charged with an offence under this section.

(3.) If any person is charged before a justice with an offence under this Act, no further proceeding shall be taken against that person without the consent of the Attorney-General or Solicitor-General, except such as the justice may think necessary, by remand or otherwise, to secure the safe custody of that person.

(4.) The expenses of the prosecution of an offence under this Act shall be defrayed in like manner as in a case of felony.

2. (1.) His Majesty may, by Order in Council, declare that this Act shall be in force in any case of national emergency, in which it appears to him that the publica- tion of information prohibited by this Act might be prejudicial to the interests of the realm, and any Order so made may be revoked by any subsequent Order.

(2.) This Act shall have effect only while an Order in Council declaring the Act to be in force is in operation; but any legal proceedings may be instituted, continued, or enforced, and any penalty or punishment may be imposed, in respect of an offence under this Act committed while the Act was in force, although the Order in Council in pursuance of which the Act was in force is no longer in operation.

3.—(1.) This Act shall extend to the whole of the British Islands, and the Royal Courts of the Channel Islands shall register this Act accordingly.

(2.) In the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, offences may be prosecuted, fines recovered, and proceedings taken under this Act in such courts and in such manner as may for the time being be provided in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man by law or, if no such express provision is made, then in and before the courts and in the manner in which the like offences, fines, and proceedings may be prosecuted, recovered, or taken therein by law, or as near thereto as circumstances admit.

(3.) As respects prosecutions in Scotland, the Lord Advocate, and as respects prosecutions in Ireland, the Attorney-General or Solicitor-General for Ireland, and as respects prosecutions in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, the person who exercises in those Islands respectively the like functions as the Attorney-General in England shall be substituted for the Attorney or Solicitor-General.

4. This Act may be cited as the Publication of Naval and Military Information Act, 19

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