A GOOD WAR GRATUITY

Maoriland Worker, Volume 10, Issue 447, 1 October 1919, Page 6

A GOOD WAR GRATUITY

The demand of the returned soldiers for a fiat-rate gratuity of -3150 and the pi-eminence of Mr. Winston. Church" ill in these latter days reminds us of a decent-sized «ar gratuity paid in days when ilat-ratcs were not so popular. The, recipient of this war gratuity was John Churchill, the first, Duke ol' Mari'borough, and tho General who ii_ alliance with tho Germans fought tne French when the former wero our "glorious allies" and the latter wero a "barbarous horde." When Churchill returned from the wars he got, as his gratuity, a Dukedom, the Manor of Woodstock, the Palace of Blenheim —on wtiiich a grateful nation spent half a iniliicn— arid an annuity of _fc5,000.

During his working life ho was well paid out of the public revenues and when ho died his pension of -£~000 was paid for another 106 years to his de-scc-dants. and w.is afterwards commuted for a lump sum down. According to Macaulay, the historian, Marlborough took in" ten years .£63,0.0 from bread contractors to tiie during which time he and his wife were drawing annua} •emoluments of «£6-1,325; he pocketed 2.V per cent. o a " th o pay of tho foreign troops subsidised by England; and ho got Marlborough House, worth _--0,000, and the site free. Yet notwithstanding all this he received the war gratuity as previously mentioned.

Any returned soldiers who are dubious of their chance of getting the -2150 have themselves to blame. They should have been Generals and not privates.