§ Mr. BROOKESasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been called to the fact that motor drivers who enlisted in 1915 at the rate of Ss. a day are now having their pay automatically reduced to 2s. 7d. a day; and whether, in that case, he can give the reasons for the change, and in any event remove the sense of grievance under which the many men concerned are labouring?
§ Mr. FORSTERAs I informed the hon. Member for Blackburn on 25th April last, in answer to a similar question, recruiting for mechanical transport drivers at 6s. per diem closed on 10th November, 1915, and all men enlisted after that date are only entitled to ordinary rates of pay. A number of men enlisted after that date have been paid 6s. per diem erroneously, and in these cases the 6s. has been allowed up to the date on which the error was discovered, no recovery being made from the man of the past erroneous issue of the special rate. In future, these men will be held to serve at the ordinary rates of pay, which they should have drawn from the commencement.