§ 62. Mr. SANDERSasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if his attention has been called to the case of country doctors and veterinary surgeons who are called out with Territorial units and whose pay is 15s. 6d. a day, while they lose their private practice, whereas a civilian practitioner newly joined for war service gets 24s. a day and £60 bounty at the end of the war; and whether he will take steps to remedy this inequality of treatment?
Mr. BAKERAll such officers commissioned in peace draw, under the terms of their contract, the pay and allowance of the Regular Army, varying according to the ranks which they hold. The rate quoted, 15s. 6d. a day, is that of a captain of the Royal Army Medical Corps, but-field allowance of 3s. 6d. a day is also allowable, so that the total drawn is 19s. 157 and not 15s. 6d. It is necessary to give higher rates to those commissioned on emergency, but there is no intention of making this universal.
§ Mr. BRIDGEMANIs it not the case that the former class are getting less than the civilian practitioners newly joined?
Mr. BAKERThe former are serving under a running contract under which they engaged. It is often necessary to take on specialists and to deal with them on special terms in time of war.