HOME SERVICE MEN
9 QUESTION OF SEPARATION • ALLOWANCES. Referring to the statement relative to the position of home service men put forward by Defence Headquarters m yesterday's Dominion, Mr. R. A. Armstrong, president of the Second Division League, stated to our representative that he regretted having to point to the fact that, in this matter, as had happened so often in the past, the official explanation conveyed a very wrong impression to the public. The most extreme cases had been quoted, and reference made to what married homo service men with four children would receive, whereas the regulations provide that only three children are recognised, no matter how many more a home service man might have. This quoting of extreme cases was consistent with the official statements made from time to time about how much the family of a married soldier on active service could receive, when the full financial assistance grant of £3 per week was quoted. As the league had feared, experience was now proving that it was difficult for soldiers to secure even a small proportion of that amount; yet the public had been asked to believe that these grants would be made most freely. So with the case of these home service men, the public ivere now told that a married private with one child, living out nf camp, gets £3 15s. per week; but the statement fails to inform the public that a married private with one child who has to live in camp only gets £2 7s. 3d. per week all told. The whole of the cases quoted in the Departmental statement were those of men who were living at their own homes and drawing the extra 4s. per day rationing allowance. With such cases the league was not concerned, and its representations had been made on behalf of the men who are actually separated from their families. The personal expenses of home service men were probably heavier than those of men on active service, and yet even if only the tisual amount, 2s. per day, were 'deducted from the case above quoted it left only £1 13s. 3d. for the wife to pay rent, etc., and feed and clothe herself and her child It had to be remembered that there was no financial assistance available for home service men.. "Tho Departmental argument that these men are volunteers and need not undertake tho work at all is a very poor contention,said Mr. Armstrong. '"All the married men at present on active service are also volunteers, but the Department surely would not contend that they should receive worse treatment than balloted men. As a matter of fact a largo proportion of the married home service men aro those who by reason of age or physical disability have found this the only branch of the servico in which they could find a place to gratify their . patriotic desire to do something activo for the Empire. To contend that because they volunteered for this work the State is justified in paying them inadequately and keeping their families in privation is to destroy the very foundations of the spirit of national service."
Mr. Armstrong concludcd by saying that the league felt confident that the Government would redeem the promise made by the Minister of Defence in Parliament, so that the new-rates would apply to home service men who were actually separated from their families.
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 99, 19 January 1918, Page 8
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566HOME SERVICE MEN Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 99, 19 January 1918, Page 8
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