[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sia,—Your correspondent "
S." does well to call attention to the pension scandal; Mrs. Levi Jackson is a familiar feature in village life. Our local representative of the type is the wife of a farm labourer who receives the maximum wages—I do not say that lie is overpaid; one of _the EOM is in receipt of an Army pension, another is earning good wages at a factory;
only one child is dependent on the parents, one of whom has a small unearned income. Yet, as " the dependant " of a son killed in the war, Mrs. Jackson is in receipt of a weekly pension of 10s. 10d. She is not to be blamed for taking what the law gives her, but the taxpayer may reasonably complain of a law framed and administered on such absurd lines. My own share in the transaction is limited to attesting Mrs. Jackson's identity, and a clergyman would, very properly, refuse to be placed in the invidious position of doing more. But, considering the army of controllers and other officials salaried by the various departments of the new bureaucracy, it is a scandal that the public money should be wasted in this way. " The Gladstone touch" at the Treasury is to be desired.—I am, Sir,
Previous page
