§ 26. Colonel YATEasked the Pensions Minister what was the support of military opinion, and who were the military officers who gave their opinion when the Royal Warrant of August last was drafted, that gratuities should not be paid to the widows of officers who lost their lives owing to dysentery and other diseases contracted on active service?
§ Sir E. CORNWALLWhen the Warrant was under consideration the military authorities at the War Office recommended that the increase of the pension to be given to the widows of officers should be limited to certain classes of cases, and though they did not refer specifically to the gratuities they had the proposals fully before them, and did not recommend the extension of the gratuities to other cases than those already eligible for them. I understand that they remain of opinion that no change in this respect should be made, and I am entirely in accord with that view. The widows have gained materially by the advance from the intermediate to the highest rate.