350 ADMIRALS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 255, 25 September 1935, Page 5

350 ADMIRALS.

COUNTRY GENTLEMEN. £9OO TO £1620 A YEAR. Three hundred and fifty middle-aged gentlemen are living in trim houses all over England. They wear trim suits, drive neat motor cars, garden, or play golf every morning, and present the prizes in a breezy way at their local gymkhanas. They are retired admirals. Never before in the history of the British Navy have there been so many of them. More than 300 are men in the early and* middle fifties. Many of these have taken up commercial appointments. One is a director of a drapery [ store, another has financial interests in the city. But for the most part they are living pleasant lives of retirement | in Southern England. All of them draw pensions of more than £9OO a 'Year. ! Some of them draw as much as £1620. There has been a great increase in the cost of pensions during recent years. In 1914 £1,027,116 was spent on retired pay and half-pay. Now we spend £2,837,000, says a London correspondent. There are actually three midshipmen drawing retired pay at the present time. They each receive from £4O 12s 6d a year. On the active list there are only 77 flag officers. Thirty-one of them are employed in sea-going and dockyard commands, and 14 in shore posts.