OFFICERS’ PAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8345, 4 February 1913, Page 9

OFFICERS’ PAY

NEW SCHEME PREPARED BY THE ARMY COUNCIL. The "Daily Express" understands that the Army Council has prepared a schema for increasing the pay of army officers, and that it now only awaits the formal assent of the Treasury. When Colonel Seely was questioned in the House of Commons on the subject recently, he said: “The whole question of the pay and expenses of army officers is receiving my anxious consideration." This question has been forcing itself on the attention of the War Office for many years. As Colonel Seely stated in the House, the pay of Ss 3d a day nowdrawn by a second lieutenant of infantry is the rate granted to ensigns in 1806, So that there has been no increase lor 106 years. It bas always been recognised that a man who entered the army as a subaltern could not for many years hope to live on his pay. The result has been that only men with an independent income could choose the army os a career; and therefore the army never could get the best men. In recent years the shortage of officers in the Regular Army has caused serious concern to the authorities, and the coming increase in pay i* an attempt to cope with the' difficulty.