Family Allowances in Being
There 'are no party differences about the Family Allowances Bill, and there was deep satisfaction in all parts of the House of Commons that it was found possible to carry it through its final stages, in spite of the hitch that had arisen from the Government's insistence that there must be no duplication of allowances in the case of servicemen. Critics of one of the clauses had protested against in arrangement which would have treated the payment made to A soldier in respect of his children as a substitute for family allowance,. It was frankly admitted on Monday by Mr. Hore-Belisha, speaking for the new Government, that it is a mere matter of chance that a soldier's pay is divided up into packets as between himself, his wife and his children. This is what the critics had contended, objecting that the soldier's family ought not therefore to be deprived of the additional 5s. payable for second and subsequent children under tile Bill. The objection is satisfactorily and completely met by sn amendment, under which a serving soldier will get 5s. added to each of the benefits payable for his second and subsequent children. The soldier's family will get the family allowance, though it is p3id through another agency ; and that is all that mattered. On the motion for the third Leading of the Bill Miss Eleanor Rathbene received from several speakers the tribute she so well deserves for years of tireless effort in promoting this reform. Small as The benefits are, the principle is established, and the Bill will new pass into law among the last measures of this expiring Parliament.
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