§ Mr. RAFFANasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether an Army Order has been issued providing for the compulsory discharge of all short service men; whether the allowance to such men on their discharge is £2 10s. for each complete year of service on their present engagement; and, seeing that in the case of the compulsory retirement of officers the allowance made is £600 for a lieutenant with one year's service and £1,000 for four years' service, while a captain receives a minimum allowance of £1,000 and a maximum allowance of £2,500, and that there is no justification for such great discrepancies between the various ranks affected, will the matter be further considered?
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANSIn effecting the necessary reductions in the Army, men serving on engagements for less than the normal period have been selected for discharge in preference to those who had enlisted for the full term of Army service. I am sending the hon. Member a copy of the Order defining the compensation given. He will find that the terms for men are very much more liberal than he has been led to suppose. In making comparison with the compensation given to officers, he will remember that while the soldier, generally speaking, enlists for seven years with the Colours as a maximum, the regular officer (to whom alone the compensation terms apply) enters the Army as his life's career.