§ 26. Major GASTRELLasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, having regard to the hardship in the Service arising from the fact that 40 per cent. of the sergeants leaving the Army at the end of twenty-one years' service are not entitled to the maximum pension appropriate to their ranks as non-commissioned officers, and that 1787 this—hardship is due mainly to the difficulty in many regiments of a private being raised to the rank of sergeant in any period less than nine years, the question of rearranging the scale of pensions during the last few years of service so as to rise by ld. per day in each year instead of by 3d. per day in each three years will be reconsidered; and what would be the approximate cost of such a change if applied to the last three years only?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe concessions suggested could not be confined to sergeants. To give a figure for the cost of its general application would necessitate a laborious actuarial calculation, but the sum would certainly be large, and I am not prepared to make this addition to the already heavy non-effective cost of the Army.