The Secretary to the Department of Home and Territories has forwarded for advice the following memorandum:

From time to time requests are received from the public that passports to leave the Commonwealth be refused to persons whose desire is to evade their domestic obligations. Where these requests prove to be bona fide, it has been the practice of the Department to refuse passports until satisfactory arrangements have been made to meet such obligations.

Section 3 (2) (d) of the Passports Act, which exempts natural-born British subjects leaving the Commonwealth for New Zealand from the necessity of possessing a passport, leaves an avenue of escape, which has been frequently availed of by this class of person.

I should be glad to learn whether in your opinion any action could justifiably be taken by the Department to prevent any such person leaving for New Zealand.

In my opinion there is no power under the Passports Act 1920 or any other law of the Commonwealth to prevent any such person leaving for New Zealand.

[Vol. 18, p. 134]