ALLOWANCES & PENSIONS

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 74, 25 September 1917, Page 6

ALLOWANCES & PENSIONS

To-night's Parliamentary Conference on the subjects of separation allowances and war pensions should have the effect of concentrating public attention on these most pressing questions. .They present many issues which are not at all easy of solution, but we think, nevertheless, that they can. be settled in a manner satisfactory to all once a clear insight is gained into the end which it is desired to attain. On the war pensions problem the British Royal AVarrant is a model in this respect, and *t remains to be seen in the measure about to be introduced how far our National Government has given effect, to the British principles. Regarding the more immediate problem of separation allowances—more immediate because it affects at once the dependents of all soldiers at present serving and abont to serve—it appears to us that the goal Cabinet and Parliament should aim at is ior the State to assume the soldier's responsibilities, and as far as practicable keep his home and his dependents going in as good a condition as when the soldier himself maintained them. The State cannot be expected to ; do more, and we hold that it should certainly do no less, This, however, as : The Post has previously pointed out, cannot be done by fixing a high separation allowance for a wife and so much for each child, irrespective of the number in the family. To do so would mean placing some families in a very much better position thfo they occupied before their breadwinner joined the army, while other families, because they numbered less and had .greater financial commitments, would jbe reduced to a comparative state of poverty. Such, indeed, would be in direct conflict with the principles of the pensions scheme of which the Second Division League approves, The key to the situation, in'our opinion, will be found in fixing moderate separation a-llowances .which apply to all, and in the administration of the existing special financial relief provrsions (with perhaps some extension) which admit of a sliding adjustment. With proper safeguards there should -be no reason why the great majority of soldiers' homes should not be kept going in their existing state. The 'only ones who would suffer would be those drawing high salaries, whose cases it would be impossible for the State to meet. The success of such provisions, of course, depends upon the administration, and to those not yet affected it is not unreasonable to suppose that they will ask to be given guarantees in that direction. It is for Cabinet and Parliament to say whether this should not be given by guaranteeing the payment of rent at least in such proportion as in each case the combined pay and separation allowances do not exceed the soldier's pre-service income or the limit fixed in the aggregate' pay, separation allowances, and special financial assistance provisions. A suggestion we make in this connection is that a special representative of the Second Division League should be appointed on the Financial Assistance Board to guarantee, that the interests of a soldier's dependents (irrespective of whether the soldier j is married or single) will be properly looked after. We make this proposal without wishing in any way to reflect on the present personnel of the Board, which has been doing very good work; but notwithstanding this the Government would be well advised to carefully weigh the question of Second Division representation.