PRIZE BOUNTIES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 149, 21 December 1945, Page 7

PRIZE BOUNTIES

CHANGE BY ADMIRALTY

LONDON, December 20

The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, said in the House of Commons that it had been decided that prize money in respect of proceeds from the sale of captured enemy merchant ships' cargoes, which was traditionally granted to the Navy, should again be granted, but that the grant of a prize bounty should not be made. This grant was paid to the officers and crews of such ships as were actually present at the capture \or destruction of enemy warships. " Mr. Alexander said that in the Government's view such a grant was inappropriate under modern conditions of war and should be regarded as obsolete. The Dominion and Indian Governments concurred in principle with this decision.

He added that it was the Government's intention that a proportion of the proceeds should' be allocated for the benefit of members of the Royal Air Force.

He added that the Government, so far as the United Kingdom forces were concerned, had decided that this was the last occasion on which prize money should be paid.