§ 51. Major ARCHER-SHEEasked the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been drawn to the hardship to retired officers involved in the enforcement of the provisions of Appendix III., Royal Warrant, under which an officer retiring on retired pay has to serve for five years in the Special Reserve, with the result that many officers find it impossible to get employment in civil life owing to this obligation; whether he is aware that 427 an officer was recently appointed to an important position under the Home Office, but lost the appointment because of the obligation to serve in the Special Reserve; and whether it is the practice in any other public service to force men who have earned retired pay to do duty for long periods in the year to the detriment of their prospects in civil life?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Mr. Tennant)The conditions laid down in Appendix III. relate not to officers who have given the full term of service, but to those who, on retiring short of that term, wish to draw the retired pay to which these conditions are attached. In the Civil Service, voluntary retirement on pension short of the full term of service is not normally permitted on any conditions; and in the Army the privilege has always been, and always must be, subject to conditions.