§ CAPTAIN PIRIE (Aberdeen, N.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether, in view of the generally admitted evils resulting from the payment of pensions and reserve pay to discharged soldiers in quarterly sums, and especially in view of the very strong statements as to the harmfulness of this system laid before the recent Select Committee on Retired Soldiers' and Sailors' Employment by the Superintendent of the Building Works Department of the War Office, and others, he will take the necessary steps to make these payments at least monthly, either through the Post Office or otherwise?
§ MR. BRODRICKIt has been repeatedly explained in this House that there would be serious disadvantages to well-conducted men in reducing the payment now made of three mouths in advance to one month, the larger sum having been counted on, while it is obvious that men who habitually squander their pension when received would have twelve occasions of excess instead of three in the year. The change would cost a very large sum.