§ Mr. N. MACLEANasked the Secretary for War whether the estate of late Pioneer S. Muir, No. 93851, E Signal Company, Royal Engineers, who died in November, 1918, has been established: and when his widow is likely to receive the proceeds?
§ Mr. FORSTERTwo-thirds of the amount due to the estate was issued to the widow on 15th ultimo, and the remainder is now being issued to her on an undertaking to devote it to the benefit of the soldier's child.
§ Mr. WILKIEasked the Secretary for War whether he is aware that hardship is being inflicted on widows and mothers by the present practice of the distribution of estates of deceased men; whether Lance-Corporal William Raich, No. 1096, 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders, left an estate amounting to £36 14s. 6d., and of this sum his mother, a widow, received only £12 4s. 10d., while £24 9s. 8d. is retained by the War Office pending application by the nearest blood relation of the deceased soldier's father, a sister who emigrated to South Africa twenty years ago, and who never supported or saw the deceased soldier; and whether the widow mother, who had given her only son, and has no other support, should receive his estate in full?
§ Mr. FORSTERThe amount retained is under Scottish law the property of the father's blood-relations. We have no power to dispose of an estate except in. accordance with the law.