THE GOVERNMENT SEPARATION ALLOWANCE..
[To THE EDITOR OF TH1 "SPECTATOR:9
SIR,—May I very strongly endorse the letter of "A Soldier's Wife" contained in your last issue, and also your editorial footnote to same? In the branch of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association for which I happen to be honorary secretary, and which is now dealing with some thousand cases, we find daily instances of the hardships occasioned by the deductions from soldiers' pay. Take the case of a woman with three children in a town like this, where rents average from 5s. to 6s. a week. If the wife receives the full 21 she can just, and only just, manage to pay her way ; but in order to obtain this El she must claim deduction from her husband's scanty pay of not less than 5s. 3d. a week, leaving him with only is. 9d. for the many little necessaries, to say nothing of luxuries, which he requires, and in many cases the wife prefers to forgo that part of the allowance she so badly wants rather than leave her husband so entirely unprovided for. Of course, our Association gives help as far as we can, but a soldier's wife should be provided for without having occasion to go to a voluntary Association for help; and certainly I, in common, I think, with most of your readers, fully under- stood, when Mr. Asquith recently explained his scheme in the House, that this was going to be the case. I will not trespass further on your space beyond pointing out that for a wife to feel that she must insist on the full allowance in order to sup- port herself and her family, she places herself in a most invidious position, and one exceedingly likely to cause friction between herself and her husband.—I am, Sir, &O., THE HON. SECRETARY OF A COUNTRY BRANCH OF THE S.S.F.A.
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