§ Mr. W. NICHOLSONasked the Undersecretary of State to the Air Ministry whether he is aware that Lieutenant P. A. Baker, Royal Air Force, has been informed that lie is to be gazetted out of the Air Force; whether Lieutenant Baker is still in hospital suffering from severe burns received in a crash in France in September, 1917; whether he has been marked for a further six months' treatment in hospital with daily surgical dressings; whether his pay, as lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, is 14s. per day, with free maintenance; whether, if gazetted out, he will receive pay at the rate of £175 per annum, less 4s. 6d. per day for maintenance; and whether, as Lieutenant Baker is incapacitated and unable to earn his living, the action of curtailing his pay and charging him with maintenance is the usual reward to an officer who has received wounds on active service?
§ Major-General SEELYThe answers to the first four parts of the question are in the affirmative; the question of the amount of disability pension to which this officer will be entitled on relinquishment of his commission cannot be stated until the Ministry of Pensions are in a position to examine the case, but the normal rate for a lieutenant of the Royal Air Force who is fully disabled is £175 a year, plus a bonus of 20 per cent. from which a deduction of 4s. 6d. per day falls to be made if the officer is maintained in hospital. This officer has received the utmost advantage and consideration it is possible to give him1390W under the existing Regulations. It has always been accepted that some definite period must be fixed during which an officer can be paid full pay before his case is taken over by Pensions Board. I am informed that that period (eighteen months) has been exceeded by six months in this case.