§ 44. Mr. BRIANTasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office what is the total number of unmarried wives who have received separation allowances 229 during the War; and, if there is difficulty in giving these figures, can he give the numbers in each at any given date before 31st December, 1918?
§ Sir A. WILLIAMSONThis information is not available as it has never been necessary, for statistical purposes, to distinguish between Class A and Class B dependants. Moreover, it cannot be obtained without an exhaustive review of over a million dead accounts, and even if this were practicable, the cost of the scrutiny would, I submit, be out of all proportion to the value of the information secured. The War Office have only been interested in details of these irregular unions from the point of view of assessment—such as whether the parties were free to marry, period of cohabitation, number of children being maintained, and whether any or all were result of union, &c., &c. Further, it would not be possible to strike an average on the figures of any one selected pay office as the proportion varies in areas and in periods.