Justice to Servicemen .
The Government have chosen-far the best way of relieving the hardships caused to Servicemen by the loss of their civilian earnings.. A general increase of pay and allowances is not what is needed; nor, even if it had been feasible, would it have brought adequate relief where it is most needed._ What is rightly aimed at is smoothing away the financial embarrassments which have worried many men who have given up remunerative jobs to join the Services, and this to a considerabfe extent will he effected by the decision to improve the grants paid to supple. meat the ordinary allowances for wives and children. The amount to be paid for the maintenance of a family will be fixed according to the pre-Service standard of living. The minimum standard of maintenance to be adopted—after the fixed charges of rent, insurance, &c., have been met—is i 6s. for each unit of the family (counting two children under . school age as one). The maximum rate of grant is to be increased from L2 to L3 a week, exclusive of the regulation allowances. These provisions will go some, way to meeting the hardship of families for whom the withdrawal of the wage-earner has been in some cases little less than a catastrophe. The new provisions represent a sound measure of rough justice to men who have put aside everything to serve in the Forces. What now remains is to ensure that the administration of the scheme works expeditiously and with the minimum of red tape, that claims should be quickly examined and payments promptly made
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