WHAT SOLDIERS ARE PAID

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 168, 11 September 1942, Page 4

WHAT SOLDIERS ARE PAID

A CABLE message from London a few days ago suggested that some improvements have been made in the pay and/or allowances of regular British soldiers. So far we do not know what these changes are, but an article in a recent issue of the London weekly "News Review" gives some interesting particulars of the pay of soldiers of all the United Nations.

Think what ’e’s been, Think what ’e’s seen. Think of ’isepension, An’ Gawd save the Queen! UEEN VICTORIA was so irked by Rudyard Kipling’s crack at Army pensions and pay conditions that he lost all chance of ever becoming Poet Laureate. But what the Poet of Empire wrote about Tommy Atkins applies equally to the British Army to-day. Tommy Atkins’s 2/6 a day scarcely allows him to buy a packet of fags. Married men have to contribute 3/6 toward$ the maintenance of their wives and dependants. Opponents of higher pay rene. the food and shelter which a grateful country contributes. The War Office estimate of a private’s real income is £2/1/3 a week, calculated on the cost of living of an agricultural labourer. But "experts point out that bulk buying by the Army reduces cost of upkeep to 27/a week. Tradesmen’s pay in the Forces looks exactly what it is not. Tank drivers are paid 55/- cash and kind; civilian bus drivers, 93/6; radio mechanics in the Army get 69/-, civilians 106/-, Service electricians are paid 69/-, whereas civilian electricians receive 106/-. Furthermore, soldiers get no overtime.

Here are the conditions in the U.S.A. and the Empire: United States: In the New World a soldier géts a man’s pay. Soon the President will sign a Bill bringing in new rates, retroactive from June 1. Home service men now receiving £5/5/- per month will get £12/10/-, and men serving overseas an extra 20 per cent. Privates, First Class (promoted on attaining a certain standard of efficiency) will receive £13/10/- monthly. Canada: Canada’s fighting men get £8/15/- a month. Paid in dollars at 4.47 dollars to the pound, tradesmen get 1/3 per day extra to 3/9 according to classification. The Canadian soldier does not receive the full amount, however, £4/10/- a month being held back in the case of single men as a nest-egg for after the

war and towards maintenance of dependants for married men. The British soldier’s nest-egg is 6d a day, or £9 a year. New Zealand: The New Zealand Army pays its privates 7/- a day for home service, 7/6 for service overseas and all found. If the soldier lives out he gets an extra 2/6 per day. Soldiers’ wives get an allowance of 3/3 a day, plus 2/9 for the first child and 1/6 for each extra child to a maximum of five. In addition there is a scheme of deferred payments.. A private overseas who has no dependant has to put 2/a day in some form of savings bank. Men overseas with dependants have to allot from their own pay 3/- a day to their wives and up to 4/- for two or more children.

Tradesmen in the New Zealand Army get army pay plus 1/- a day. Australia: Monthly pay for privates, £11/5/-. Tradesmen get up to 3/- a day extra, and all men serving abroad receive an exchange allowance starting at 6d and moving up according to rank. The contribution towards family maintenance is 3/6, and a deferred payment of 2/- per day put by for men serving abroad is not docked from pay. Allies in Exile: In principle, Britain’s Allies in exile pay their troops at British tates. The Poles, however, get only 2/a day, rising to 12/- for a warrant officer, Kit allowance of 542d a week and 6d a week for privates working at London Headquarters are extras. The colonial service offers slight advantages, rising from 4d daily to 8d for a warrant officer. While French, Belgian, Norwegian, and Dutch privates receive 2/6 a day, mess officers are allowed about 7d a man for little extras to meet the different palates of the foreign troops. The French also get more coffee and less tea than the British. Tradesmen are paid at the same rates as privates. Yet far below even these rates is the pay of the Soviet and Chinese soldiers. Red Army men receive £1 a month, the Chinese only 1/6. Allowances: Lately the British Government increased its rates for children. A wife now receives 25/- a week, 8/6 for her first child, 15/3 for two children, (Continued on next page)

WHAT SOLDIERS ARE PAID (Continued from previous page) and 88/3 for three children, every other child being allowed 5/-. U.S. allowances were also lately increased by Congress. Whereas before the passing of the new Bill a married woman with two children received £18 per month, in future she will receive £25 a month, or more than £6 a week. Privates in the American Arnfy also make contributions, home service men retaining £7 per month and. overseas men £9/10/- of their pay. Canadian wives get about £2 a week, about 13/- each for the first two children, 10/- for the third child, and 6/for the fourth; after that, no further allowances are made, A Dependence Allowance Board considers cases of hardship when a soldier applies for special family grants. Australian wives come off best in the

Empire with 49/- (Australian) per week and 17/6 a week for one child. A woman with three children under 16 receives almost £5 Australian per week or £4 British. Families of Allied soldiers who succeeded in escaping from German occupied territories, or who live in colonies, receive differerit allowances according to the finances of a Government in exile. A Polish wife receives 18/- a week if she is childless, 7/6 a week for the first child, 5/6 for the second, and 4/- for the third. Wives of warrant officers have to live on 24/6 a week, and the same rates of pay for children as privates, while officers’ wives with two children receive 38/6 a week. The wife of a Belgian soldier has to make ends meet on 25/- a week with no allowance for one child. Two children bring her in 16/6 a week, and an extra 10/- for the third,