§ *SIR CHARLES DILKEI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether the effect of the recent orders is to abolish service pay as regards all men enlisted or altering their terms of service after 1st October last; and, if not, whether he will state under what warrant or order service pay continues to exist; whether, as regards soldiers enlisted before the 1st October, the effect of Army Order 231 has been to deprive any, and, if so, how many, men of service pay previously enjoyed; and whether he will state the total diminution of pay of privates under the recent orders.
§ MR. HALDANEThe effect of Army Order 231 of 1906 is to apply the new conditions to all men enlisting or entering into a new contract on or after the 1st October, 1906. Men serving before the 1st October, 1906, will retain service pay for the whole period of any contract into which they had entered before that date, their vested rights being thus scrupulously respected. Men not belonging to the cavalry, artillery, and infantry will not be eligible for service or proficiency pay from the date from which any new, contract into which they have been permitted to enter, subsequent to the 30th September, begins to run. The number at present affected is small and the reduction in emoluments cannot be carried out for a long period of years. It is not yet possible to state what will be the ultimate effect of the change. The rates of service pay in force when the new warrant was promulgated varied from 4d. to 7d. a day; the rates of proficiency pay are either 3d. or 6d. It is proposed to make the provision of the 3d. messing 1022 allowance to the recruit on enlistment instead of merely after six months a first charge on any savings under the new system which may accumulate.
§ *SIR CHARLES DILKEI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether there are any cases in respect of which neither service pay nor proficiency pay will exist.
§ MR. HALDANEProficiency pay is given only to men of the cavalry, artillery, and infantry, and will gradually replace service pay. Soldiers of the Royal Engineers, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, and Army Veterinary Corps who receive Engineer and Corps pay, and certain other small groups like the Military Police, Army Pay Corps, etc., whose ordinary rate of pay already includes remuneration for technical qualification, are not eligible for proficiency pay, and only those will draw service pay who are entitled to it under contracts into which they entered before the 1st October, 1906.