§ 54. Sir A. HOLBROOKasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he will consider revising the present pay of Army officers in India; whether he is aware that a large percentage of officers, both in the British and Indian armies in India,, live under a permanent burden of debt owing to their insufficient pay and constant moves without sufficient allowance to cover the expense of such moves; and whether he is aware that the overseas allowance granted to Civil Service officials on the recommendation of the Lee Commission was not also given to the Army officer, whose pay 1771 is less than that of his contemporaries in rank in the police, public works department, or forest services?
§ Captain MARGESSON (Lord of the Treasury)I have been asked to reply. The present scales of pay were fixed in 1925 and are subject to revision in 1930. Recent inquiries have not disclosed any grounds for regarding them as inadequate, except perhaps as regards the furlough pay of Indian Army officers which is under separate consideration. As regards the last part the position was explained in a reply given to the hon. Member for Middleton (Mr. Sandeman) on the 2nd July last, of which a copy is being sent to my hon. and gallant Friend.