§ Mr. GEORGE ROBERTSasked the President of the Local Government Board whether he was aware of the case of an old lady resident near Canterbury whose application for an old age pension, after twenty years' service in a county asylum, was granted in the first instance, but who was subsequently pronounced ineligible by his Board on the ground that some thirty years ago she married a German; whether he was aware that the woman had never been out of the country, and had not seen or heard of the man she married during the last twenty-five years; and whether, when an amendment of the Old Age Pensions Act was contemplated consideration would be given as to the advisability of amending the Act so as to bring such cases as the above within its benefit?
§ Mr. BURNSI have been unable to trace the case referred to by the hon. Member from the information contained in his question, but I may say generally that, in the circumstances mentioned, the woman would probably be an alien under Section 10 of the Naturalisation Act, 1870, and consequently would not satisfy one of the conditions of Section 2 of the Old Age Pensions Act. Cases of this kind will no doubt be considered by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer in connection with any amendment of the Act.