National Security (General) Regulations (Amendment) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1943. No. 123.

 

REGULATION UNDER THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT 1939-1940.*

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulation under the National Security Act 1939-1940.

Dated this fifth day of May, 1943.

(SGD.) GOWRIE.

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

for and on behalf of the Minister of State for Defence.

 

Amendment of the National Security (General) Regulations.

Regulation 37 of the National Security (General) Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

Disposal of dead bodies.

“37.—(1.) If, with respect to any dead body, any officer of police in charge of a police station, any member of the police force of or above the rank of sergeant or any commissioned officer of the Armed Forces has reasonable cause to believe that it is the body of a person who has died in consequence of war operations, that officer or member may, subject to such restrictions and conditions as are imposed by order of a Minister, give such directions for the disposal of the body as the officer or member thinks fit.

“(2.) If, with respect to any dead body, any commissioned officer of the Armed Forces has reasonable cause to believe that it is the body of a member of those Forces whose death occurred, while on duty, from accidental or natural causes, that officer may, subject to such restrictions and conditions as are imposed by order of a Minister, give such directions for the disposal of the body as he thinks fit.

“(3.) Except in any particular case in which a Minister otherwise directs, nothing in any law relating to coroners or the registration of deaths shall apply in relation to any body with respect to which directions are given under sub-regulation (1.) or sub-regulation (2.) of this regulation, or in relation to the death of any person with respect to whose body directions are given under either of those sub-regulations;

 

* Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on , 1943.

Statutory Rules 1939, No. 87, as amended to date. For previous National Security (General) Regulations, see footnote   to Statutory Rules 1943, No. 82, and see also Statutory Rules 1943, Nos. 88 and

7640.—Price 3d. 25/14.4.1943.

 

but a Minister may by order make provision for securing that particulars of the identity of any person with respect to whose body directions are so given shall, so far as they are known or can reasonably be ascertained, he furnished to the appropriate authority in the State or Territory of the Commonwealth concerned within such time after the giving of the directions as is prescribed by the order.

“(4.) Notwithstanding anything contained in any law of the Commonwealth or of any State or Territory, a commissioned medical officer of the Armed Forces who is a legally qualified medical practitioner according to the law of any State or Territory or the law of the allied country to which the Armed Forces belong—

(a) shall be qualified to perform in any State or Territory a post mortem examination of the body of any person, if requested so to do by any coroner or deputy coroner of the State or Territory; and

(b) may sign a certificate of death in respect of the death of any member of the Armed Forces to which he belongs who dies while on service with those Forces, and any certificate so signed, and containing a statement that the deceased was a member of the Armed Forces at the time of his death, shall be of the same force and effect for all purposes as a certificate signed by a legally qualified medical practitioner of the State or Territory in which the death occurred.

“(5.) The person referred to in the records of the Defence Force or any part thereof as the next-of-kin of a member of that Force in respect of whose body directions have been given in pursuance of sub-regulation (1.) or sub-regulation (2.) of this regulation shall, upon demand by the appropriate authority in the State or Territory of the Commonwealth concerned, furnish to that appropriate authority particulars of the identity of the deceased member of the Forces so far as they are known to him or can reasonably be ascertained by him.

“(6.) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, any officer of the Armed Forces in charge of any unit of a Graves Registration Service or any Graves Registration and Enquiry Unit—

(a) may establish or cause to be established such cemeteries as are required for the burial of persons who have died in consequence of war operations, or for the burial of internees or prisoners of war;

(b)may authorize and direct the exhumation and the re-interment, cremation or other disposal of the body of any deceased member of those Forces, or the body of a deceased person not being a member of the Armed Forces whose death occurred while that person was accompanying any part of the Armed Forces on active service within the limits of the Commonwealth or the limits of any Territory under the control of the Commonwealth; and

(c) may enter or authorize any other person or persons to enter any cemetery and to inspect, maintain or carry out any work in connexion with the grave of any deceased member of the Armed Forces which is or has been maintained at public expense.

 

“(7.) In this regulation—

‘Armed Forces’ means any of the Armed Forces, or nursing services or women’s services auxiliary to the Armed Forces, of His Majesty or of any Power which is allied or associated with His Majesty in any war in which His Majesty is engaged;

‘body’ includes any part of a body;

‘the appropriate authority’, in relation to any State or Territory, means a person or authority charged under the law of the State or Territory with the duty of registering deaths;

‘war operations’ means operations of the forces of an enemy, or operations of any of the Armed Forces while in action against an enemy or while acting in the course of duty upon any warning of the imminence of an attack by an enemy.”.

 

By Authority: L. F. Johnston, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.