HOME-SERVICE MEN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 131, 20 February 1918, Page 5

HOME-SERVICE MEN

POSITION OF MARRIED SOLDIERS

THEIR PAY AND ALLOWANCES The question of tho pay and allowances of married men on home service has been a.hot one in the camps since the beginning of tho year. On Jamiary 1, tho new rate of separation allowance, of 3s. a day for N.C.O.'s and -men of the Expeditionary. Forces, came into operation. The opinion is fairly unanimous among the home-service men in the camps that they . should also receive 3s. a day. Whether that opinion is a sound one or r.ot ma* bo said to depend on the way one regards tlie different positions of tho troops concerned: in one case they are widely separated from the homes they are fighting for, and in tho other, in many eases, the men are. actually living at home. On the other hand, the high rents near the camps make it hard work for a married man on home service to make ends meet, and, again, there are numbers of home-service men, and officers, too, who would gladly go on active service, if onlv because of the chances of promotion that offer.

The position of the home-service men in camp who are married, in regard to pay, is as follows:—A private's nay is ss. a day, with Is. a tlav seoaration allowance and Od. a day allowance for each child under the age of 16 up to the mimbnr of three. After that limit is reached, there is no further children's allowance made, as the Department does not encourage married men ta take up home-service duties. A man and wife and three children thus draw Bs. 3d. a day on seven days a week, ennnl to £2 17s. M. a week, with the soldier found in the matter of clothes and food. That is for tho man who lives in camp himself, and whose family lives elsewhere. But tho_ homeservice mau is permitted to' live at homo, if near tho camp, and still draw his separation allowance, and, in lieu of having his meals in camp, he may draw 2s. a day ration allowance, bringing tie weekly pay up to £3 lls. Ud. The maximum pay which a man on home service can draw however, not reached with that.

Clerks, cooks, A.S.C. and sanitary men and skilleH mechanics employed at their trade recoive 2s. a dav extra duty pay. This is paid only for days when actually working. Week-end leave interrupts the payments, and other leave also. Under this duty's pay heading come men and N.C.O.'s up to an including sergeants. A sergeant's daily nny would be Ps. in' all, which brings him to within fxl. of a quartermastersergeant in tho matter of pay. The Quartermaster-sergeant'n pay is 3s. a day, plus ]s. 6d. a dny field allowance, this field allowance being paid to all , , N.C.O. ranks above sergeant and including also staff-sergeant, regimental sergeant-major, company sergeantmajor, and staff quartermaster-ser-geant. Officers on home service receie no separation allowance and have to provide their own uniform. Promotion from a regimental sergeant-major to a first or second lieutenant's commission means an actual decrease in income.