BREAKAGE BILLS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 September 1934, Page 12

BREAKAGE BILLS

R.A.F. REPAYMENTS A married airman of the Royal Air Force is allowed 4d a year for breakages of crockery and glassware in his second bedroom when he is at a home station. But if he is overseas his allowance is increased to This order has been “promulagted for information and guidance and necessary action” by command of the Air Council. It is a fascinating exercise of the imagination to consider how this extra id has been reached, states the London “Daily Mail.” The most exhaustive consideration of the hazards of bedroom furniture in Great Britain as compared with the adventurers of ewers and basins in Irak and Singapore must have been undertaken. Chartered accountants may have worked out to the tenth place of decimals the possibility of a monsoon sweeping through a room and dashing down a water bottle and glass. The effect of earthquakes on soap dishes in Karachi may have been taken into consideration. Perhaps, tbe occasion when a lion invaded an R.A.F. barracks in Africa, may have caused endless calculations to be made. Fourpence a year does not allow much margin for carelessness. A basin falls to the ground, and the airman’s wife, bursting into tears, exclaims, “Three years’ allowance gone.” Officers are either considered to be more careless or to have more extravagant tastes. A single officer is allowed a whole 9Jd a quarter for breakages if wash-hand stand ware provided is in accordance with Stores Ref. 21A/226, 227, and 230. Overseas, where wild winds blow and wild beasts roam, he is allowed IOJd. But the eagle eye (appropriate phrase) of the Air Council does not lose sight of the smallest economy. It is sternly pointed out that the breakage allowance for mess articles does not apply to the “metal components of the following articles”:— Cruet (stand), dish, butter (cover), pot, marmalade (cover), stand, pickle (stand).

“Pot, marmalade (cover)” —sp-~ly no humble domestic article was „ver made so official in its life.