§ MR. MAURICE HEALYI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether cases have been brought to his notice showing the inadequacy of the allowance of 6d. a day deductable from the pay of non-commissioned officers above the rank of sergeant for the support of a deserted wife and family; whether the advisability of amending Sec. 145 of the Army Act in that respect will be considered, so as to provide for a larger deduction than 6d. in any case where the Secretary of State thought larger alimony desirable; whether the attention of the War Office has been called to the case of a Sergeant Major Engineer's Clerk, of the Royal Engineers, at Devonport, in receipt of £2 10s. a week, who refuses to allow more than the statutable 6d. a day to his wife and family in Cork, from whom he is separated in consequence of his cruelty and infidelity; and, whether the circumstances connected with this case are such as to call for some special action by the War Department?
MR. POWELL-WILLIAMSComplaints as to the inadequacy of the stoppage have been very infrequent, and it has not been thought advisable to amend the Army Act in regard to it. The case referred to in the Question has been brought before the War Office; but, as the wife in the first instant left her husband, it has not been considered necessary to place him under compulsory stoppages. He has, however, consented to a voluntary stoppage. It is a matrimonial quarrel in which the Secretary of State does not think it desirable to interfere.