§ Mr. Astorasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what steps he proposes to take with regard to widows and orphans of retired Palestine officials who are now in financial difficulties owing to the winding up of the Palestine Widows and Orphans Pension Fund by an Order in Council, 29th April, 1948.
Mr. Creech JonesPensions already awarded to widows and orphans of deceased Palestine officers in return for contributions to the Widows' and Orphans' Pension Fund are continuing and will continue to be paid. These beneficiaries remain in exactly the same position as if the Mandate had not been terminated.
The position of Palestine officers who had begun to make provision for their dependants by contributing to the Fund is probably in the hon. Member's mind. The Fund had been in existence only since 1944 and had not therefore built up any reserve of capital. In the absence of any continuing authority which could receive contributions and pay benefits, and in the absence also of any possibility of the fund attracting new contributors, there was clearly no alternative but to wind it up. Officers who have retired will receive a payment equal to the amount of the contributions which they and the Palestine Government have made to the Fund on their behalf, with compound interest. In the case of those officers who are continuing in the Colonial Service elsewhere, the Colonial Governments to which they are being transferred have been invited to enact legislation to permit them to make lump sum contributions to the Fund or Scheme of the new Colony equal to the amount they had previously contributed to the Palestine Fund, and most of the Governments have agreed.