The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-10-26
INDIGNATION AT
SIZE OF PENSIONS
English Papers Attack Government s
Policy of Allowing Soldiers
Wives Small Amount.

LONDON, October %. Correspond
ence of The Associated Press. Five
shillings a week to the soldiers wife
who has lost her husband in fighting
his country's battles!
With this exclamation one of the lead
ing London papers attacks editorially
the government s pension system which
it says is due to the old tradition sum
med up in Wellington s assertion that
his troops in the Spanish campaign,
were only "the scum of the earth. y
The War Office, according to the writer.
fails to realize that times are different
now ana the vast majority of volunteers
are men who in civil life earned good
wages in factory, field, office and shop
Indignation has also been expressed
in parliament, so that it is not unlikely
some reform in pensions may follow
In the British army the pay of officers
and men Is dependent on the regiment
There is no standard scale of pay as in
America Commissioned officers. as
rule, receive a sum impossible to live
on--about $50. month. They must have
independent means, and in the crack
regiments, such as the Scots Greys or
the Greaadier Guards they must be
wealthy, with polo ponies, Wallets and
expensive uniforms. But in certain of
the colonial troops doing police duty
in lands bordered by savages, they get
as good ray as American officers and 10
not have 10 keep up expensive estab-
lishments
The ordinary infantrymen in the new
volunteer army OF a million men, pledg-
ed to foreign service. are started off ut
S1.65 a week, clear of expenses Mar
| ried men are allowed in addition sep
aration pay.for their families at the rate
| of $l.90 "a week for the wife and two
| pence a day-or % cents a week-foI
| each child. In the county of. London
they are. given a further sum of so cents
I a, week, owing to the higher cost of
/ living.
All married soldiers serving abroad
are obliged to allot at least So cents a
week to their families out of their own
pay. Worked out on this scale, the
| lowest sum a soldier s wife without
children can receive is 23 shillings q
week in the case of warrant officer
| % for a regimental quartermaster ser
geant, Is shiGlings six pence for corpo
raj or private. If the wife has foul
children TO support, she win receive, or
the same scale, a sum ranging from 81
to % shillings.
Widows of those who die on activ,
service receive from five to ten shilling'
a week, according to the rank and pay
of the husband. But the mass of then
will not get over five shillings. Al
extra allowance varying from forty t.
fifty cents a week for each child i
given, however.
While There are no government homes
/ for old soldiers in Great Britain, as il
the United States, there are certain
i homes maintained by private charity
OF these, the largest and most famou
| is in Chelsea, London. The garden part,
given at the Chelsea home for its bene
fit is one Of the big social events O.
London 5 spring season.
Much suffering was caused by tn,
government deferring the first paymen
of separation allowance to soldiers
wives during the first two months o
the war. Not until October l was thi
money put into the hands of the desti
tute women. War office red tape ais
held up pay allOtments.