ARMY CAREERS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 176, 12 August 1937, Page 6

ARMY CAREERS

(Britisb Official Wireless.)

Pension at End of 21 Years' Service / A1DING SOLDIERS

' RUGBY, Aug. 10. New proposals for the betterment of conditions of service for soldiers in the regular army are announced. The proposals are experimental and for a limited period. They allow serving soldiers about to complete the first term of Colour service to extend their service and to allow Section A and B reservists to rejoin the Colours. Both classes of mon will, on the completion of 12 years' service, be eligible to re-engage to complete 21 years' service, so as to qualify for pensions. At present the most common form of enlistment is for seven years with the Colours and five on the reserve. It is only 'in exceptional circumstances that a private soldier is allowed to extend his Colour service to qualify for a pension or that reservists are allowed to rejoin the* Colours. The experiment will show the extent to which soldiers now serving with tho Colours or on the reserve desire to adopt the Army as a career and will incrcase the number of enlisting soldiers. Major Hore-Belisha, Secretary for War, in a broadcast talk on the project, said he was told one of tho chief anxieties of the serving soldier has I been his inability to continue in the j profession which he had mastered and j liked. Under the new ofiier his mind • would be set at rest. He would know ! the State would use his servjces normally till he completed 21 years' total service, generally at about 40 years of age. Under the present system a soldier was bound to leave the Colours after a limited period, and although a good soldier, he often could not find another job. Tho proposal was to give him a job in his own profession with a pension attached to it and it would be a consolation to him to know that at the time of his discharge he would, while still in the prime of his life, have something coming in. In fact, Ihe offer inct tho frequent assertion that a soldier ought to g.et jmore for his scrvicc, for under the new ;scheme the pension was, in cllect, added to his pay. That would give greater confidence, not only to the soldier himeelf, but also to his family. A total of 88,9S2 reservists will be invited to rejoin the Colours. Mt. Winston Churhclil describes tho proposals as "partial mobilisation in time of peacej"