§ 82. Captain BOWYERasked the Secretary of State for War and Air whether retired Indian Army officers re-employed in India during the War have been allowed to reckon such period of re-employment for higher pension under the Indian Army pension time scale, the pension during that period to which they had previously been admitted being suspended; whether officers on the active list of the Indian Army lent during the war by the India Office to the War Office received their full Indian Army pay both in England and France; whether the re-employed retired Indian Army officers who served under the War Office were invited in August and September, 1914, by circular letter from the India Office, to serve under the War Office; whether many of them applied to be allowed to count their re-employed service towards higher pension under the Indian Army time scale; whether they have been differentiated from those who served under the India Office by not being allowed to reckon their re-employed service towards higher pension on the grounds that this has been disallowed in the British service; and would he consider the question of treating all retired Indian Army officers re-employed in the War on the same equal footing and allow those who served under the War Office to refund the pension they drew during their re-employment, and count their re-employed service towards higher pension under the Indian Army pension time scale as was done by those who served in India?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the WAR OFFICE (Sir A. Williamson)I cannot say whether all the facts are as stated in the question, as the conditions of service of Indian Army officers under the Indian Government are not within the knowledge of the War Office; nor can I say whether my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for India would regard re-employment under the War Office as in any event reckoning as service for higher Indian pension. Officers re-employed under the War Office, whether formerly of the British or Indian Armies, are treated alike in this matter and it is not proposed to make any alteration.