20. Mr. ROBINSONasked the Secretary of State for Air if his attention has been called to the case of Captain R. F. Browne, D.F.C.; if he is aware that this officer was granted a short-service commission in the Royal Air Force on 24th October, 1919, one of the conditions of appointment being that he should receive a gratuity of £75 for each year's service; that in 1925 he was invalided in consequence of a disability due to service in the great War and was paid the gratuity of £420; whether he is aware that the amount of the gratuity is being deducted in instalments from the disability pension granted in respect of a disability incurred before he contracted for a short-service commission and gratuity; and what is the reason for depriving this officer of money that he had earned and which was promised when his commission was granted?
§ Sir P. SASSOONThe Regulations under which the officer in question was granted a short service commission in the Royal Air Force provided that the gratuity for which short service officers are ordinarily eligible on the termination of their service would not be payable in addition to pension. It was therefore necessary for the Ministry of Pensions, when awarding him a pension, to arrange for the repayment therefrom of the gratuity which he had previously received from the Air Ministry, and such repayment is being effected by small instalments spread over a number of years.