Lieut.-Commander KENWORTHasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that there are cases in which the widows of a chief officer and a third engineer respectively in the Merchant Service killed in the War are only receiving a pension of £40 17s. 9d. per annum for themselves, and £16 per annum for one child, whereas the widow of a second-lieutenant in the Army receives £100 per annum and 10s. per week for her child; and whether, in view of this apparent inequality, he will cause a revision to be made in the scale of Mercantile Marine pensions?
§ Sir A. GEDDESI have not sufficient information to enable me to trace the cases referred to by the hon. and gallant Member, or to verify the statements made, but I think that if he will snake inquiries into those cases he will find that, in addi- 1353W tion to the sums he mentions, the sum of £300 has been paid under the Workmen's Compensation Act. As I informed the hon. and gallant Member on the 25th November, the question of amending the War Risks Compensation Scheme for the Mercantile Marine is under consideration.