Lieutenant-Colonel ALLENasked the Secretary of State for War if he is aware that the gratuities to which the following officers are entitled after four years' service are Staff lieutenant-colonel £765, Infantry lieutenant-colonel £429, and Royal Engineer lieutenant-colonel £336; if, in calculating the gratuity of the Staff lieutenant-colonel, it is based on the consolidated rate of pay; if such pay includes all allowances; if the gratuities drawn by Infantry and Royal Engineer lieutenant-colonels are based on regimental pay only, excluding all command and corps pay and allowances, and if he will have the order amended by which such distinctions are drawn between the gratuities of all officers of the same rank?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLThe amounts stated are approximately those due under paragraph 497 of the Pay Warrant to temporary officers of over four years' service. Under that Warrant the gratuities are calculated upon regimental, departmental, or staff pay only, and do not include additional pay of any kind or (except in the case of officers drawing consolidated rates) allowances. This Regulation was made after the South African War as a result of much consideration. It has not perhaps proved in all respects appropriate to the circumstances of the present War. But it would be impossible now to assimilate the gratuities of all officers except by the powers of levelling up to the maxi- 1935W mum; and in view of the amounts involved I see no sufficient reason for taking that course.