7. Sir HENRY COWANasked the Secretary of State for War the grounds on which a claim to a modified pension and to the long service and good conduct medal was rejected in the ease of Charles Spain, of No. 4, Crayford Road, Holloway, N.7, whose record of service in the Army and Royal Air Force extended over 18 years, namely, 4th Essex Regiment, joined April, 1888, served nine months; private, No. 2,345, 1st Northants, joined 11th December, 1888, served 13 years; private, No. 6,501, 3rd Northants, joined 7th March, 1902, served nine months; private, No. 30,369, Royal Flying Corps, joined 6th June, 1916, served three years 10 months, and whose service would have exceeded 20 years had he been allowed to complete his contract, i.e., service for the duration of the War, into which he entered when joining the Royal Flying Corps on 6th June, 1916, a contract, the man contends, which should not have expired until the official termination of the War, namely, 1921?
§ Mr. PENNYI have been asked to reply. Mr. Spain, whose case has frequently been reviewed, had insufficient service to qualify him either for a modified pension or for the long service and 961 good conduct medal. He had no contractual right to be retained until the official end of the War, and even if he had been so retained, it may be added, he would still have been ineligible for a modified pension in view of the conditions of his discharge. I am not sure whether my hon. Friend remembers the correspondence that he had with the Air Ministry about this case in September, 1925, when the reasons for which neither pension nor long service medal could be given were explained to him in fuller detail in a letter of which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Air is sending him a copy.