(1) Every possible effort shall be made by lawful means to detect and apprehend deserters or absentees.
(2) The means and other descriptions of the deserters or absentees shall be distributed among such persons as may be directed by the chief of the Naval Staff, but one copy of the same shall invariably be sent by the Commanding Officer to the police authorities of the deserters or absentee’s usual place of residence, when it is known, and also of any other place or places where he may likely to have gone.
(3) When deserters are apprehended or they voluntarily surrender after more than two years absence from the service, they shall not be removed from their place confinement until the directions of the Chief of the Naval Staff have been obtained.
(4) Any person who voluntarily confesses to being a deserter or an absentee without leave from the Navy may, unless he surrenders himself into Naval custody, either
(a) be charged before a magistrate or
(b) be arrested on a warrant under section 83 of the Act and delivered direct into Naval custody.
I in either case the question whether such a person be or be not a deserter or absentee, shall be duly investigated by the concerned Naval authority and for that purpose such person may be detained for a responsible time.
(5) If upon investigation his confession of desertion or absence without leave is found not to be true, such a person shall not be punished under the Act.