IRISH PENSIONS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 57, 3 March 1909, Page 4

IRISH PENSIONS.

CONSIDERED TOO NUMEROUS.

MR ASQUITH'S MISCALCULA< TION. '~

[press association.} (Received March 2, 10.55 p.m.) LONDON, March 2. During the debate on the Supplementary Estimates, £910,Gu0 for oldage pensions, Mr Fell, Conservative Member for Yarmouth, stated that£l77,ooo had already been granted to> Ireland, while there was £31,000 in! outstanding claims. One in eighty-^ eight Englishmen was pensioned, ancf one in twenty-five Irishmen. Mr Lloyd-George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated that Mr Asquith.,; who was misled by the New Zealand precedent,, was wrong vi assuming, the proportion of pensioner's who would not claim during the first year ; otherwise his forecasts wt re generally; sound, except in regard to Ireland, wherte he believed that a good many; pensioners were below seventy. Nogeneral revision was intended, but in-< vestigations were being continued.^. Unless pauper disqualification weret soon removed, pensions would cost' eleven millions Mr Balfour criticised Mr LloydGeorge's speech as an attempt top' palliate the fraudulent claims of Ire-i land: Poverty in Ireland was no excuse. Mr Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ire* land, said that a great number of Irish, were unable to state their age, hence the • priests and Presbyteriant clergy acted as vouchers. , Irish Members denied the accuracy of the census, and protested against af; secret departmental inquiry. .