Civil and Military Services Segregation Act (1915)
The Civil and Military Service Segregation Act of 1915 was a law passed by the Themiclesian parliament, statutorily distinguishing between civilian and military agencies.
Full title
The full title of the act is An Act for Effecting the Better and More Reasonable Segregation of Public Services, that is Between the Military and Civil Functions hitherto thereof.
Background
Until the passage of the statute, Themiclesian public servants have been under the authority of the Ministry of Administration, which may place them into any public service it deems fit, regardless of its military or civil nature. The basis of this practice is ancient. When Themiclesia did not have a standing army or navy, it raised forces on the basis of local militias, which were commanded by civil administrators assigned ad hoc to formations. In late antiquity, this was justified on the grounds that military commanders were more akin to administrators, since they were their own quartermasters, whose duties included accounting and administration. When Themiclesia acquired standing forces later, civil administrators were still posted to important positions therein. Though this practice was waning in the 16th and 17th centuries, a military academy was established for civil servants in the early 19th, which bridged their presence to the forces. Since the civil service was dominated by the aristocracy, the academy became an insurance for jobless aristocrats, enabling them to take up military commissions. By 1870, the aristocratic privileges were considered prejudicial and pernicious to the national interest, since aristocrats in military commissions rarely performed any official duty, and the Liberals have sought to correct this problem by forbidding the posting of aristocratic civil servants to the armed forces. However, the perennially-Conservative House of Lords have blocked this on ideological grounds.
Statute
While the effects of the statute are far-reaching, especially in view of what later amendments have accomplished, the original 1915 statute did more renaming and procedural tinkering than anything else.
Firstly, the statute defined what was a military service. Previous to the statute, certain government department performed military functions but also had a range of civilian ones, this ambiguity being one of the reasons why experienced civil servants were preferred to "native" military officers, who may not have good administrative experience. It listed 284 government agencies that ran professional regiments, reserve forces, and militias or support organizations or performed functions tangent to them, and placed them into the Consolidated Army Service. Another 41 departments were categorized into the Naval Service. Two civilian bodies, the National League of Aviators and the Consortium of Aviation, were earmarked as the Provisional Air Service for future development into an air force. The Consolidated Army Service, Naval Service, and Provisional Air Service were referred to as "armed forces" for the first time in history.
Secondly, the statute authorized the Secretary of State for War to veto any appointment the Ministry of Administration might make to the Consolidated Army Service and the Secretary of State for the Navy likewise to the Naval Service. The analogous authority for the Provisional Air Service was temporarily granted to the Second Cabinet Secretary, "until such a time as a Secretary of State for Air is appointed, to whom the said power will devolve, at said time." At the same time, it also permitted the Secretary of State for War to appoint his Ministerial Staff to stay informed about the state of the Consolidated Army Service, which did not have any sort of leadership except the Secretary of State, who was given the title "Head of the Consolidated Army Service". Though this accomplished little, it meant the minister no longer relied on the title of Privy Commander of Armies, with its set of archaic rules and customs, to exercise powers over the various components of the service. The situation in the navy was comparatively simplistic, since from ancient times the Great Admiralty was primum inter pares of all the naval departments. The Act allowed the Secretary of State for the Navy to appoint officers to his Ministerial Staff for the same purpose.
Legislative process
The bill was a Liberal government bill, originally tabled in 1912. The Conservatives in the Commons were ambivalent, but in House of Lords they vehemently opposed it. When Liberal lords questioned the motives of their opponents in the house, they were unable to produce much argument; however, the bill was rejected by 232-85 on second reading, by an overwhelming Conservative majority. The Liberal leader in the Lords proclaimed that the only reason Conservative lords opposed the bill was their ability to gain an additional income by taking on military commissions as a sinecure, to which the Conservatives had nothing to object. In 1913, the Parliament Act allowed the Commons to circumvent the Lords if it passed the bill again, after a general election; this occurred in Feb. 1915. Rather than facing the humiliation of being bypassed or having the house packed by Liberal peers, the Lords quickly assented to the bill on Mar. 17, 1915, just before the Commons were bound to give the bill third reading a second time.