CO885-5 — Page 161

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

TILLCO. 885

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

Naval

10

his non-effective imperial pay in exchange for a colonial salary. The view of the War Office has been that taking service under a new employer ought not to affect the obligation of the old employer to compensate the officer for paat services, and that any interference with the retired pay tends to deter officers from accepting the retirements provided for them, and thereby augments the number of compulsory retirements.

NAVY.

pay,

Similar difficulties have arisen in the case of naval officers on retired who have obtained re-employment in the Home Civil Service, or in the Colonies;-cases of colonial employment being, perhaps, more frequent in the Navy than in the Army.

Morcover, there is no regulation whatsoever extant with regard to the Rethed Pay receipt of naval retired pay with civil or colonial emoluments. The Order in Council of 7th February, 1877, does not apply to retired pay. The Admiralty, therefore, consider themselves bound to allow of its receipt without any limitations at all.

Naval

Half pay.

Recommen

lations of Committee

11879.

•

Objections

to them.

13953

79

19354

79

H95

80

But as regards naval half pay there has not been the same alteration in character that has taken place in Army half pay. The Navy is still to a great extent a half pay service; lieutenants, and yet more commanders, captains, and flag officers, in ascending ratio, necessarily spend a large proportion of their time on half pay. Accordingly, there has been no regu- lation for the Navy corresponding to Article 967 of the Army Pay Warrant, but the limitations of the Appropriation Act, 1870, as applied by the Order in Council of 7th February, 1877, are in full force for the Navy.

III.

REGULATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED.

I. In 1879 a Committee, consisting of Sir R. Lingen and Mr. (now Sir R.) Thompson, proposed the following rules in regard to any description of army non-effective pay, drawn concurrently with civil salary.

"If the civil salary and non-effective pay together do not exceed 400l. a year, they may be held concurrently.

"If the civil salary and non-offective pay together exceed 4001. a year, but do not amount to four times the half pay or unattached pay of the officer's substantive rank, so much of his non- effective pay as shall equal the half pay or unattached pay of his substantive rank shall be paid to him.

"If the officer's civil salury exceeds three times, but does not amount to four times the half pay or unattached pay of his substantive rauk, so much of his non-effective pay shall be paid to him, as will raise his civil salary and non-effective pay together to four times the half pay or unattached pay of his substantive rank.

"If the officer's civil salary amounts to or exceeds four times the half pay or unattached pay of his substantive rank, no portion of his non-effective pay shall be paid to him.

"Service in a civil situation may reckon towards military non-effective pay, provided the officer, while in such civil situation, was seconded in his regiment, or on the temporary reserve list of the Royal Engineers, but such non-effective pay shall not be drawu while the officer is in civil employment.

An officer retiring from the Army for the purpose of accepting such a civil situation as may be approved by the Secretary of State and the Treasury, before he shall have become entitled to non-effective pay, will be allowed to count towards civil superannuation allowance, whatever military service he is entitled to count towards military retirement.

"Officers holding civil situations who have commuted their non-effective pay or received gratuities, shall be treated as coming under the principle of the above rules, and deductions aball be made from the pay of their civil situations corresponding with the reduction of non-effective my to which they would have been subject under these rules.

Nothing in these regulations at all prevent a retired officer from receiving, in addition to any non-effective pay which he is allowed to receive, any pension which may have been granted to him for wounds or distinguished service.

"The expression civil ealary' shall be held to include a salary derived from the revenues of any colony or of the Island of Cyprus.”

The main purpose of these rules was to place a re-employed Army officer, with retired pay, on the same footing, in regard to abatements, as he would have been had he retired on half

pay.

The then Secretary of State for War and the Treasury approved of these rules, and they were proposed to the Admiralty for adoption in the Naval Service. But the Admiralty declined to adopt them on the ground that the rules regarding Naval half pay did not need alteration; they acknowledged, however, that some rule was needed as to retired pay, and suggested that the rule for half pay should be extended to retired pay as regards all officers

11

accepting civil appointments after a given date, and to all officers commuting their retired pay. This recommendation as to retired pay was, however, withdrawn by the Admiralty in November 1881.

Moreover, on further consideration, the War Office objected to the adoption of a multiple of half pay as the limit to the receipt of retired pay, because it was a complicated arrangement, not easily to be understood by army officers. They suggested that the integer to be multiplied should be the retired pay; but they also recommended that when service in the civil situation was allowed to reckon towards military promotion or retirement, no non-effective pay whatever should be drawn.

Meanwhile, the Treasury, in repeated instances, sanctioned the receipt of retired pay within limits corresponding to those laid down for half pay by the Appropriation Act, 1870.

19503

sl

6885

*

15744

13

Inapplica II. Another suggestion has been made that the principlo of section 22 the ivit pru

bility of of 4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 24. ought to be applied rigorously to Army and Navy bibition of officers, and that they should be allowed to draw so much only of their non- effective pay as, when added to their civil salary, will make up the full pay of their Army or Navy rank.

This proposal, however, would seem to sacrifice the spirit of the Act to its letter, because full pay, even with the addition of all money allowances, as has been explained in a preceding part of the Report, is very far from repre- senting the full emoluments, and still less the emoluments and agréments, together, of active employment in the Army or Navy.

IV.

PRESENT RECOMMENDATIONS.

*--

We recommend the following regulations: (a.) No navy or army officer to accept a Government situation at home, abroad, or in the Colonies, without the previous consent of the Board of Admiralty or the Secretary of State for War.

(b.) No navy or army officer drawing or having commuted any kind of non-effective pay, or having received any gratuity on retirement, to be appointed to any civil situation of which the emoluments are derived from Imperial funds without the previous consent of the Treasury to his receiving the emoluments of such situation in combination with his non-effective pay, or otherwise.

P

(c.) Notice to be sent to the Treasury by the Board of Admiralty or the Secretary of State for War, whenever consent has been given by either of them to the acceptance by a navy or army officer of a civil situation of which the emoluments are derived from Imperial funds; such notice to specify the amount and character of the non-effective pay, if any, to be drawn by the officer, or which he has commuted, the gratuity, if any, which he may have received on retirement, and the nature and emoluments of the civil situation so far as the same may be known.

Similar notice to be likewise sent to the Treasury of any change in the nature or amount of the officer's non-effective pay that may occur subsequently to his taking the civil situation.

Notice not to be required by the Treasury when the emoluments of the appointment are paid out of Colonial or other non-Imperial funds.

(d.) Navy half pay or retired pay to be allowed or not to naval officers, at the discretion of the Board of Admiralty, irrespective of any civil situations held by them, the emoluments of which are derived from Imperial funds, or of any situations whatsoever held by them, the emoluments of which are derived from other sources.

(e.) No Army half pay, or unattached pay of general officers on the active list, to be allowed to any army officer while holding a civil situation, conferred on him after the 30th June, 1881.

(f) Army retired pay, retired full pay, or unattached pay of general officers on the retired list, to be allowed or not to army officers, at the discretion of the Secretary of State, irrespective of any non-military situations held by them, the emoluments of which are derived from Imperial funds, or of any

1834.

12