WAR SERVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 July 1942, Page 4

WAR SERVICE

CALL ON BRITISH SUBJECTS RESIDENT IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. LEGISLATURE BEFORE HOUSE OF COMMONS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 11.25 a.m.) RUGBY, July 28. Moving the second reading of the National Service (Foreign Countries) Bill, the Minister of Labour (Mr Bevin) explained that this was a measure which enabled British subjects abroad to be called up if necessary, not because there had been a bad response from British communities abroad, but because the time had come to extend to them similar obligations to these obtaining at home. It was not purely a matter of manpower, but of demonstrating beyond doubt our determination to use every resource available. The Bill would be applied first to Egypt, where British forces were now at grips with the enemy, and where the danger was most acute. It was not proposed to interfere with the present arrangements with the United States, by which British subjects of military age in that country joined the United States Army if they did not enter military or other services provided by the British Government, nor would the Bill apply in the Dominions, India, Burma, Newfoundland, Southern Rhodesia, or in colonies, protectorates and mandated territories. In those countries conscription could be effected by local legislation. “We feel that all citizens of the United Nations should be brought within the ambit of the respective laws of their countries, and that we ought to do all we can to utilise every man and woman who is a citizen in service in the great struggle,” concluded Mr Bevin.