§ MR. McLARENI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that large numbers of old soldiers who served in the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny are living in the receipt of parish relief, or in very poor circumstances, in Leicestershire and other parts of the country; whether all these men over 65 years of age are to be considered under the new arrangement between the War Office and the Treasury as candidates qualified to 471 receive the special grant, as well as any under that age who have been certified by an Army medical officer to be totally incapacitated by bodily infirmity from earning a living; and whether any minimum number of years' service is necessary to qualify an old soldier for a compassionate allowance?
MR. POWELL WILLIAMSMy right honourable Friend has asked me to answer this Question. He is not aware of the facts as stated in the first paragraph. The conditions of the grant of compassionate Campaign Pensions referred to in the second paragraph are accurately stated, and a further condition is a minimum of ten years' colour service. 3,194 have already been relieved under this power.