§ 3. Colonel Sir CHARLES SEELYasked the President of the Board of Trade 1289 whether his attention has been drawn to the hardship caused to men who are in receipt of superannuation pensions from the railway companies by the rise of prices due to the War; and whether he will take into consideration, as the railways have been taken over by the Government for the term of the War, the grant to them of some moderate increase?
§ Mr. WARDLEI am afraid that the rise in the cost of living must necessarily cause some hardship to ail persons in receipt of fixed incomes. Superannuated railway servants are paid from funds in the hands of the railway companies, to which the recipients have contributed on the basis of a fixed return, and I doubt whether they can be treated differently from persons in a similar position in other classes of the community.
§ Sir C. SEELYConsidering that the Government have made a very large profit out of their dealings with the railway companies, why could they not let a little of this profit go to these men who are suffering in consequence of the War?
§ Mr. WARDLEI am not so sure about the profit.
§ Sir C. SEELYIt is the case. It is a very large profit.