SUBJECTS OF EIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 October 1941, Page 6

SUBJECTS OF EIRE

APPEALS AGAINST SERVICE DISMISSED. DECISION OF WELLINGTON BOARD. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The appeals of six men on the ground of their status, as subjects of Eire, were dismissed in a reserved judgment by the Armed Services Appeal Board today. “Because the Constitution of Eire Act was passed in Ireland in 1937, and purported to declare that from that time Eire ceased to be part of the British Empire, the appellants contend that they thereby lost their previous British nationality,” the board stated. . , . The board is unable to regard their proposition as established.” In New Zealand, it was added, the status of a natural-born British subject was settled by the rules set out in Clause 1 of the second schedule of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens in New Zealand Act, 1928, which provided, inter alia, that any person born within his Majesty’s Dominions and allegiance shall be deemed to be a natural-born British subject. Each of the appellants, in the view of the board, came within the category. To the contention that, assuming Eire to be still an integral part of the British Empire, New Zealand had no constitutional right to enact legislation conscripting citizens of another part of the Empire, to wit Eire, the view expressed by the board is that the question of the propriety or justification for legislation was not a matter coming within its province. The board felt bound to hold that the appellants, when called up, had not ceased to be British subjects, and being residents of New Zealand within meaning of Regulation 5 of the National Service Emergency Regulations were properly members of the reserve.