I refer to your memorandum dated 5th November, 1945, in connexion with the expiration of the Papua-New Guinea Provisional Administration Act 1945.

(2)  Section 17 of that Act reads as follows:

This Act shall continue in operation until a date to be fixed by proclamation, and no longer, but in any event not longer than six months after His Majesty ceases to be engaged in war.

(3)  The view is held and acted upon in this Department that His Majesty is still engaged in war and will continue to be so engaged, and the war will not end in a legal sense, until either a treaty of peace is entered into with each of the enemy states with which he has been at war at any time since 3rd September, 1939, and is ratified by Australia, or, if there is no such treaty, until the day fixed by the Commonwealth Government as the day upon which the war is to be regarded as having ceased.

(4)  The High Court of Australia recently considered the question whether the National Security Act 1939–1943, section 19 of which was in similar terms to section 17 of the Papua-New Guinea Provisional Administration Act 1945, had expired prior to the date of the commencement of the National Security Act 1946, namely 16th May, 1946. The Court held that the war had not ceased on 2nd September, 1945 and that the National Security Act 1939–1943 was still in force on 16th May, 1946, when the National Security Act 1946, which repealed section 19 and substituted another provision for the expiration of the Act, was enacted (Miller v. the Commonwealth (1946) A.L.R. 469 Davison v. The Commonwealth (1946) A.L.R. 46).

(5)  Consequently, I think that the period of six months after His Majesty ceases to be engaged in war will not commence to run until one or other of the eventualities adverted to in paragraph 3 hereof occurs.