Financial and Allowance Regulations for the Military Forces of the Commonwealth (Amendment) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1904. No. 30.

Commonwealth of Australia.

Department of Defence,

Melbourne, 2nd July, 1904.

MILITARY FORCES OF THE COMMONWEALTH.—AMENDMENT OF FINANCIAL AND ALLOWANCE REGULATIONS, 1904 (PROVISIONAL), TO COME INTO OPERATION FORTHWITH.

Part I.—Section IV.

In para. 49, for the date “1st July, 1903,” read “1st July, 1904.”

Part II.—Pay of Permanent Forces.

After para. 78, add—

Section VIII.—Good Conduct Badges.

(1.) A good conduct badge shall be a high distinction conferred on a soldier under the rank of corporal, 2nd corporal, or bombardier, as a token of good conduct, and shall be marked by a chevron worn on the left arm.

(2.) To every good conduct badge, good conduct pay at the rate of 2d. per diem shall be attached. Such good conduct pay shall not in any case be drawn for any day on which the soldier does not receive pay.

Grant of Badges.

(3.) Subject to para. 5, a good conduct badge shall be awarded within the limits laid down in Part II., of the Financial and Allowance Regulations for the Military Forces of the Commonwealth to a soldier on completing a “term of good conduct,” i.e., a period of two years, during which no entry has been made against the soldier’s name in the Regimental Defaulter’s Sheet. If the offence last entered involved imprisonment, such period shall reckon from the date of the termination of the imprisonment, otherwise it shall reckon from the date on which punishment was awarded.

(4.) A second or later badge shall not be granted under para. 3 until the badge or badges previously awarded have been held through a complete “term of good conduct” immediately preceding the date of the grant, except as laid down in para. 7.

(5.) A good conduct badge shall not be awarded to a soldier under para. 3 if, on the completion of a “term of good conduct,” he is absent, or is a prisoner, or in arrest waiting disposal. When the Commanding Officer finally disposes of any such case, he shall, unless he awards punishment which entails forfeiture of pay under paras. 90 and 94 of Part V. of the Commonwealth Military Regulations, decide whether the badge is or is not to be given to the soldier.

(6.) A soldier reduced from a higher rank to a rank in which he would be eligible for a good conduct badge shall, unless forfeiture is awarded under paras. 9 to 11, be granted at once such a number of badges as he would have been eligible for under Part II. of the Financial and Allowance Regulations for the Military Forces of the Commonwealth in the lower ranks, regard being had to the entries in his Regimental Defaulter’s Sheet (see para. 8), and the remaining badge or badges shall be awarded under the conditions of para. 14.

(7.) When the service which a soldier has forfeited by desertion, or any other cause, has been restored to him, he shall, from the date on which he is held to have become eligible for such restoration, be re-assessed for good conduct badges, and be awarded those to which his total service entitled him, having regard to the several entries of his name in the Defaulter’s Sheet since attestation, including the entry of the offence for which his service was forfeited. In such a case, the uninterrupted possession of the previous badge or badges during a complete “term of good conduct” (as defined in para. 1) shall not be enforced; nor shall it be necessary, before another badge can be awarded, that a full “term of good conduct” should have elapsed from the date of re-assessment.

Forfeiture of Badges.

(8.) One badge held by a soldier shall be forfeited for each occasion on which his name appears in the Regimental Defaulter’s Sheet (see para. 3), unless the entry be for an offence entailing further forfeiture under paras. 9 to 12.

(9.) Except as laid down in para. 10, a General or District Court Martial may, in addition to, or without any other punishment, sentence a soldier to forfeit all or any of his good conduct badges.

(10.) A soldier shall forfeit all his good conduct badges and be placed in the same position as regards earning badges as a recruit when—

(a) He is convicted of an offence mentioned in sub-paras. (25) to (29) of para. 27 of Part V. of the Regulations for the Commonwealth Military Forces.

(b) His conviction by a Court Martial, or the order dispensing with his trial, is such as to entail a forfeiture of former service towards engagement.

In such cases the forfeiture of badges shall not be included in the sentence.

(11.) A soldier sentenced by a Court Martial or Civil Court to a term of imprisonment exceeding six months shall forfeit all good conduct badges held by him, and shall be placed in the same position as regards earning badges as a soldier to whom a badge has never been awarded.

 

(12.) A soldier shall forfeit the whole of his good conduct badges when discharged—

(a) With ignominy.

(b) In consequence of his incorrigible and worthless character.

(c) Expressly on account of misconduct.

(d) On conviction by the Civil Power.

(e) On being sentenced to penal servitude.

(f) For giving a false answer on attestation.

(13.) The forfeiture of a good conduct badge shall be reckoned from the date on which punishment has been awarded.

Restoration of Badges.

(14.) A soldier who forfeits a good conduct badge, except under the circumstances defined in paras. 10 and 11, shall regain it on completing a “half term of good conduct,” reckoned as laid down in para. 3.

If the soldier has lost more than one badge, he shall complete a “half term of good conduct” from the date of losing the last badge forfeited before one lost badge is restored, and shall complete another “half term” before the second badge is restored, and so on.

No good conduct badge shall, however, be restored if, on the completion of a “half term of good conduct,” the soldier is absent, or is a prisoner awaiting disposal for an offence which is subsequently entered in the Regimental Defaulter’s Sheet, or is absent under conditions which afterwards entail such an entry.

Part VIII.—Miscellaneous Expenditure.

Add the following new para. after para. 204:—

204a. Commanding Officers may, in any case of necessity, provide a soldier of the Permanent Forces, on discharge, with plain clothes, at a cost not exceeding £1 10s.

 

By Authority: J. Kemp, Acting Government Printer, Melbourne.