CIVIL SERVICE SALARIES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1
SIR,—As an official who retired last year with a pension calcu- lated on a proportion of the War bonus, I am sure that when the circumstances are fully understood no one will feel justified in saying that the officials have taken an unfair advantage of the temporary bonus (see the Spectator of February 25th. p. 227). The condition objected to is,that 75 per cent. of the bonus shall be treated as salary for the purpose of calculating pension (without reference to the rise or fall in the cost of necessaries). One can only suppose that this preportion was fixed with a view to finality and to avoid a sliding scale. If there was to be a variation corresponding to the cost of necessaries, there seems to be no reason in principle why the whole of the bonus instead of 75 per cent. should not have been included.
One member of the House of Commons applied the parable of
the labourers in the vineyard. I understand that one of the lessons to be learnt from that parable is that when you have pledged your word you must keep to it, though that is not the argument I am specially concerned to urge in this case. Civil Servants cannot retire, except in the case of ill-health, until they have served a prescribed number of years. The War bonus conditions in the ease of retirement were intended to apply, and could only apply, to officials who were entitled to retire while the conditions were in force. When it is appreciated that the conditions were fixed by an independent Arbitration Board set up by the Government to decide what was fair between the Government and its Civil Servants, that those conditions were approved by the Government, and that the House of Commons at the beginning of last year voted money to provide the pensions of retired officials on those conditions, it will, I trust, be acknowledged that the officials in question have not taken an unfair advantage. If anyone still charges them with unfair- ness, will he suggest what course an official should have adopted
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