[To THE EDITOR OF THY " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—I wish to
protest against the impression, given by the article in your last issue entitled "The Pension Scandal In Our Village," that the most wanton waste of public funds is taking place all over the country. Where the writer lives there must be an extremely inefficient Local War Pensions Committee, and I advise him to write to the county secretary of the same and ask for an investigation. I am sure that the same sort of thing is not happening everywhere. I also live, like him, in a large village, and as representative of the War Pensions Committee receive the name of every discharged soldier with a statement as to pension (if any) which he receives. A disability pension can only be drawn on account of wounds received in action or disease which is considered attributable ,to the man's military service by the medical board who examine him before leaving the Army. It is therefore very unusual for men who have not been on active service to be now drawing a disability pension, though, of course, there are cases of tuberculosis, &c., con- tracted in home camps.
As to parents' pensions, no doubt there is a good deal of mis- representation as to "dependence," and Pensions Committees ought to make very thorough investigations in cases where dependence has to be proved, but the case cited by the writer of the article of " Mrs. Levi Jackson " proves nothing. Mrs. Jackson was entitled to a flat-rate pension of five shillings a week -because her son who was killed was under the age of twenty-six when he enlisted. Had he been over that age it would have been necessary for her to prove dependence. Hoping the above may to some extent counteract the impres- sion made on the casual reader by the article under discussion, I am, Sir, &c., A REPRESENTATIVE. OF THE WAR PENSIONS COMMITTEE.
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