§ Mrs. WINTRINGHAMasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he will consider the possibility of allowing those women who are now being discharged from the Civil Service after seven years' service to reap the benefit of the gratuity Clauses of the Superannuation Act of 1887, which applied to pre-War temporary staffs, in view of the fact that men who served in Army Pay Corps offices at home during the War received gratuities after far shorter service, and had no greater restrictions or risks attached to their employment than the women?
Mr. GRAHAMI fear that I cannot agree to this proposal, as it would involve preferential treatment for women clerks. It was decided in 1921, as regards temporary clerks generally, that temporary service rendered by War entrants was not to reckon for civil gratuity, and no such gratuities have accordingly been awarded to male or female civilian clerks in respect of war service as such whether in Army pay offices or in other offices.