§ 66. Mr. HORE-BELISHAasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether retired pay can be assessed in years and quarters of a year or, alternatively, whether the principle of allowing officers to complete a stated period after reaching the ordinary age for retirement can be conceded, particularly seeing that the justice of allowing all time served to count for retired pay was admitted by Order in Council of the 11th February, 1904, and this principle has been departed from in the later schemes of retired allowances?
§ Lieut.-Colonel HEADLAMThe Order in Council of the 11th February, 1904, did not, as the hon. Member supposes, allow fractions of a year's service amounting in the aggregate to less than a year to be taken into account in assessing retired pay, but merely provided machinery for taking into account fractions of a year served in different ranks when the aggregate exceeded 365 days. In such cases, the total time allowed to count was always a multiple of a year. This arrangement was necessitated by the rules for calculating retired pay then in force for warrant officers and officers promoted therefrom, under which fractions amounting in the aggregate to several years' service might otherwise have been ignored. Under the present rules, however, the rates of retired pay are based on service on the last rank only, and no necessity for such an arrangement exists. I see no reason for altering the present system, which is similar to that which prevails in all branches of the public service.