§ 100. Mr. Turtonasked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that when retired officers were re-employed during the war they were offered the choice between accepting a supplement of 25 per cent. on pay and receiving on demobilisation a more substantial rate of retired pay; and whether he will now permit such officers to refund the 25 per cent. addition to pay in exchange for reckoning re-employed service as one-sixth for each year of active-list service during the war.
§ Mr. LawsonI am aware of the arrangement. I am not prepared to allow the officers in question the option of refunding the 25 per cent. addition to pay which they received during re-employment, in order to secure to them a larger reassessed retired pay rate. Retired officers re-employed during the war had no option but to surrender their retired pay, receiving instead 25 per cent. on their pay. This addition to their pay was intended to satisfy any claim they might otherwise have had to increased retired pay, and the measure of re-assessment of retired pay which is already allowed to them represents a considerable concession.