NAVY PAY
Sir, —Does Mr Holland expect a sailor’s family to live on £4 4s, plus 10s a child family allowance? Sailors served their country well in time of war, but what will he come home to? Will it be a dying fire that he cannot keep alight because of “the cost of living” and not enough food to feed his family? It is high time the Government paid sailors and their dependants a wage that will keep their home fires burning, with a little to spare for a rainy day. Do not forget the boys in blue, now the war is over. A chest covered with medals won’t shelter the sailor’s family, but money in his pocket will.—Yours, etc.. LORD NELSON’S SONS. May 11. 1950. [Commenting on this letter, the Minister of Defence (Mr T. L. Macdonald) says: “The case represented by the correspondent is rather misleading, implying as it does that £4 4s a week and the family allowance is all that the sailor’s family receives. The actual position is that the sailor must allot a minimum of £4 4s a week to his wife in order to qualify for payment of marriage allowance. There is nothing to stop him allotting a larger sum if he so wishes. The minimum weekly pay of a married sailor is £6 13s Id. This only applies to the most junior ratings; the majority receive more.”!
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19500524.2.36.1
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26120, 24 May 1950, Page 5
Word Count
234NAVY PAY Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26120, 24 May 1950, Page 5
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.