§ Mr. HARMSWORTHasked the Under Secretary of State for India whether he is aware of the discrimination made against warrant officers in the Indian Army in respect of passages home or leave which, in their case, are dependent upon ex gratia grants from the Commander-in-Chief; that no undertaking exists that such warrant officers shall receive free passages back to India upon expiration of leave; and whether arrangements for the granting of free passages, both homeward and return, will be made as a matter of right and not indulgence?
§ Earl WINTERTONThe general question whether passages should be provided under rules for warrant officers of the Indian Army is at present under consideration.
§ Mr. HARMSWORTHasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that warrant officers in the Indian Army were originally only granted marriage allowance as from the 1st January, 1922, compared with the 4th October, 1920, in the case of warrant officers in the British Army, the former thus losing 15 months' allowance; and whether, seeing that this year 15 months' arrears of allowance were sanctioned in the case of non-departmental, but not departmental warrant officers in the Indian Army, departmental warrant officers may be placed on the same footing as non-departmental in this respect?
§ Earl WINTERTONThe facts are as stated by the hon. Member. The whole question has received very careful consideration, and as the result it was decided in the case of the non-departmental warrant officers of the India1098W Unattached List that, as they were serving on the same conditions as regards emoluments as other British personnel in India, they should receive the marriage allowance from the same date—namely, 4th October, 1920. The departmental warrant officers, on the other hand, served under entirely different conditions, and the grant of marriage allowance to them was in the nature of a new concession. It was not, therefore, considered that there were any grounds for ante-dating the concession in their case.