34. Miss Wardasked the Secretary of State for India if he is aware of the dissatisfaction of the personnel the women's services with the inadequate allowance for the purchase of tropical kit for service in India and S.E.A.C.; and will he take steps to increase it.
§ The Secretary of State for India (Mr. Amery)In the ordinary course, officers of the Auxiliary Territorial Service proceeding to India would be treated in the same manner as officers of the Auxiliary Territorial Service proceeding to any other tropical station, and would receive the additional tropical kit allowance admissible under War Office Regulations, i.e., £10. My immediate responsibility is confined to the Auxiliary Territorial Service officers who, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for War informed my hon. Friend on Tuesday, are being lent to the Government of India to assist them with the W.A.C. (I). In their case the Government of India proposed that the outfit allowance should be in accordance with the Regulations for the W.A.C. (I). The ladies in question had to leave before the exact effect of this recommendation had been decided, but, as my right hon. Friend indicated on Tuesday, the amount admissible will exceed that admissible under War Office Regulations.
Miss WardHas this additional allowance been paid; and does my right hon. Friend realise that even this concession is not sufficient?
§ Mr. AmeryI gather that the concession is some 50 per cent. in excess of what the War Office consider to be the appropriate concession in these cases. I will try to verify the point as to whether the payment has already been made.