§ Colonel YATEasked the Secretary of State for India why, considering that the pensions of Lieutenant-Colonels of the British Service have been raised from £400 to £600, and those of Commanders in the Royal Navy from £400 to £600, and of Lieutenant-Colonels in the Royal Marines from £450 to £750, the increase granted to lieutenant-colonels of the Indian Army in the new scale of pensions is limited to £100, namely, from £700 to £800; and what steps he proposes to take to remedy this differentiation of treatment?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe unrevised Indian Army rates of pension were very much more liberal than the corresponding1388W rates of retired pay for the British Service, and when the pensions were revised it was not considered necessary that the increase to the Indian pensions should be the same as in the British Army. The principle adopted was to take the new rate of British retired pay as a basis and to add thereto an Indian element varying according to the amount of Indian service up to a maximum of £200. Thus, while the maximum rate of retired pay for a lieutenant-colonel of the British Army was fixed at £600, the maximum for an officer of the same rank in the Indian Army was fixed at £800.