WAR GRATUITIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 284, 27 August 1919, Page 8

WAR GRATUITIES

« WHAT THE POSSIBILITIES ARE . BIG PAYMENTS INVOLVED Sir James Alien submitted liis gratui•tiesv Scheme to Cabinet yesterday, but .;■.Cabinet.had not time to deal with it fully, and it must have full consideration at ono if not moro meetings during the week. No announcement may be made before the end of the week. A great deal of interest has for a long • ; tinie been shown by the soldiers as to the amount of the gratuities to be paid. The 4 most' general suggestion is that the "amount may be a shilling for every day of service, although very many of them . demand more than this. A shilling, a ■"dav-doe's not amount to much for the j 'individual soldier, but it will amount to ;(a sroat deal in the aggregate. For tho /"-.purposes of an estimate-it will be fairly correct to average the service of every man at two years., At this rate the : ,-«harge for gratuities would amount to verv little short of four millions. The V B'aine result may be reached by (another - process of calculation. The scheme first down by tho Government proposed that married men should receive ; payment for one week for every thirteen weaks of service, and that single iien should receive one week's pay for every eighteen weeks of service. This payment, it was estimated, would amount to a million and a quarter, and the rato would .have been rather less than fourpence a day. With extra provision for officers, which would certainly bo considered in accordance with Army praotice. the amount involved on the sb.il- . lirig-a-day basis would be quite four millions. . , The amount is a vory'bigione, and it i> quite possible' that the Government will propose something less under nil headssay, three millions. The payment cl retrospective allowances which is being (Wanted will amount to a. quarter of a million. Tho total under the head of pensions will be small relatively. To reduce this to figures for the individual soldier, the payment would amount to ' about ono pound for every month of service. ■ It should be understood that these are not official figures, and there are not yet any-final official' figures, because the scheme has not had the r approval of Cabinet. ' '