§ Sir WILLIAM PEARCEasked the Secretary to the Admiralty if the Admiralty is considering the position of 1806W officers in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines in regard to receipt of both pay and pension in order to give them equality of treatment with the men and petty officers of the Navy and the men and noncommissioned officers of the Marines who do receive both pay and pension?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAThe position as between officers and ratings is, briefly, as follows: Petty officers and men of the Royal Navy and non-commissioned officers and men of the Royal Marines are entitled to a pension after completing a fixed period of service from the age of eighteen or from entry, while the rates of retired pay of officers vary according to their rank on retirement and the length of their service. The cases are, therefore, not altogether analagous, but the treatment accorded to officers is as follows: Retired officers of the Royal Navy, when called up for service, cease to draw their retired pay, but are given a bonus of 25 per cent. on the full pay earned by them, in lieu of counting the time served for increase of retired pay. Officers retained on the Active List, who but for the War would have been retired under the rules for compulsory retirement, draw the same pay as other officers on the Active List, and continue to count the time served for increase of retired pay within the maximum allowed. No alteration in the rules with regard to the pay of retired officers called up for service is contemplated, but certain points in connection with the pay of officers retained on the Active List beyond the age of compulsory retirement are now under consideration.