BRITISH PENSIONS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 5 August 1918, Page 5

BRITISH PENSIONS.

ALLEGEDLY INADEQUATE. (Received Aug. 5, 8.40 a.m.) LONDON.,. Aug. a. Mr Hogge, discussing the credit vote, protested at the inadequacy of pensions, especially tor widows with children. The whole scheme, he said,, was full of anomalies, and he also condemned the proposed voluntary fund appeal for three million, sterling for disabled men as a disgrace to the Government. j Other speakers supported the proI test, urging, that disabled fighters and ! their dependents should not have to depend on charity. Mr Forster (financial Secretary to the War Office), . replying, said that the Government had sympathetically considered pensions and believed the scale to be fair and equitable, remembering the earnings of soldiers in j civil life. The majority of women were sufficiently strong and willing to do work, and the Pension Committees had been empowered to deal with exceptional cases. There was, therefore, no reason for a general increase for those j who did not really need it.—Aus.-N.Z. j Cable Assn. i ,