PAY AND ALLOWANCES IN EMPIRE COUNTRIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 198, 10 May 1918, Page 6

PAY AND ALLOWANCES IN EMPIRE COUNTRIES

Sir,—Under tho above heading your issue of yesterday contained a scale of the. weekly rates in Great Britain. On several occasions I have attempted to have statements calculated to convey a wrong impression as to the position of this country in relation to granting adequate if not liberal allowances to soldiers' dependants corrected, but only on rare occasions has space been found for such. However, I hope you will publish the following advertisement from tho "John o' Groats Journal," Wick, Scotland, dealing with rates in 1915 (not 1918, as is the case with the comparative table used to illuminate New Zealand's generositv. but at a time when we v;ere paying only 7s; as a separation allowance for a wife and 3s. 6d. per week for a child, with a limit as to the number of children) :— "The 10th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders requires at once several men of good character—ex-soldiers or other suitable men over the i ge of enlistment—to be employed as transport drivers, grooms (old coachmen), batmen, storcmen, cooks, sanitary squad, otc. The men will be attested for the duration of, the war, nnd will be enlisted for home service only. Army rates of pay will be paid, and in addition separation allowances granted at the usual rates—wife only, 12s. Gd.; with one child, 17s. 6d.; wife and two children, £1 Is., and 2s. each additional child. Applications should be made to Colonel J. 11. Henderson, K. 0., Wick."

Your scale shows the rates to be only 9s. for a wife, yet 7s. for tho first child, ss. second, Ss. Gd. third, and 3s. thereafter. It would be strango if after over three ycaiy. of war the Home Government reduced the wife's allowance! Note also the rates I quote were offered' to home-service men. In New Zealand the home-service rates are 7s. for a wife, and ss. 3d. each child to-day,, .New Zealand is enjoying a greater measure of prosperity than most parts of the Empire, therefore need not boast because its soldiers are equally as well if 'jot better treated than the representatives of other component parts.—l am. etc.,

A. C. HOLMS, Sec. Fcatherston Second Division League.

fTho figures mentioned by our correspondent had been supplied officially, and it appears that they were not up to date and understated the British rates of separation allowance. The figures quoted by our correspondent also do not correctly represent the position. An Army Order issued by the War Office in December last fixed the following allowances for the wife and children under fourteen' years of age:—Wife alone, 12s. Cd. per week; wjfe and one child, 19s. Gd.; wife and two children, 2is. Gd.; wife and three children, 2Ss. Cd.;wife and four children, 315.; and 3s. for each additional child. The allowance for a child over U and under 1G years is ss. a week, or Ss. Gd. for two children, or 10s. Gd. for three children. A wife receives an additional 3s. Gd. a week if she resides in the London Postal district and .esided there at the time of her husband's enlistment. 'J'heso figures', though an improvement on those previously quoted, are. still considerably lielow the rate of pay and. allowances to New Zealand soldiers and their dependants."!