so,
(DEFENCE AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS SUB-COMMITTEE)
9 December 1975]
Mr RJ ANDREW, Mr J M PARKIN, Mr W G MANN, Captain T H BRADBURY, RN, and Group Captain F D G CLARK
there was a good deal of heart- searching in the Ministry of Defence over this decision.
18. Concerning the Gurkha Brigade, which is commanded by Brigadier Whitehead, has anything been done between the Government and the Indian and Nepalese Governments to improve the pay and pensions and gratuities of the Gurkha soldiers? We are rather tied to the Indian Government on pen- sions, and the only thing we were told is that we could give a bigger gratuity at the end of their service which would, if we wanted to do it, be more welcome because they want to buy land back in their homeland? (Mr Parkin)
***
Mr Conlan
19. Why has the Gurkha to serve so long in the Army before he can be accompanied?- -I cannot answer this offhand, but I suspect the reason is they join very young, unmarried. They then go back on their first leave, get married and their family comes out later on. This seems to be the pattern. But their unaccompanied service is very sub- stantial, for reasons which I cannot now explain. Perhaps you would like a paper on this?1
Chairman.] We would be very grateful.
Mr Conlan
20. I think it is eleven years or some- thing of that order, which seems to me a long time for unaccompanied service, so if we could have a paper on that it would be helpful? Yes. To some extent this is related to rank and where they are serving as well, but it is com- plicated.
Mr Kershaw
21. We heard a certain amount about the difficulties of Gurkha children, who find it hard to continue their education in the Army schools when their father returns to Nepal on retirement. I believe that sometimes arrangements can be made. Are there standardised arrange- ments to allow Gurkha children to stay and as to the schools in which they can stay when their fathers have retired?
-I think the arrangement is that if a
1 See Appendix 14 p 41.
[Continued
7
child is in the year when he is coming up to taking his Nepalese school-leaving certificate arrangements can be made. The family go home and the Head- quarters in Hong Kong try to arrange for some other family to take the child until such time as it has completed its schooling. I imagine this is not always possible but Headquarters do their best. I think you know that the curriculum is set by the Nepalese Education Authori- ties and, therefore, children going home before their final year at school should presumably fit into the system at home quite easily.
22. In the case of Gurkha children who are going through the British educational system, what arrangements can be made? There are a few, I believe?- -There are a few. Again, I think it is very difficult to do more than carry them through to the end of the school year. I have not been given any information about this because I have not heard of any complaints that there are serious difficulties.
Mr Finsberg
23. While still on the Gurkhas, it appears they will really have little or no training in anything other an internal security situation, except for the period they do in Brunei. Do you think in the long run this is going to have a bad effect both upon their recruitment and upon their capability, and what efforts are being made to ensure that they do some training in Australia? Indeed, has anyone given any detailed thought to using the facilities, far away though they may be, at Suffield? (Mr Andrew.) Yes, we have considered this problem of the restrictions which will be placed on the Gurkha training. The position is not perhaps quite so bad as suggested at the moment, in that we have a bat- talion in the United Kingdom as well as the one in Brunei, and the battalion in the United Kingdom can take part in all- arms training with armour and artillery in the same way as other battalions. Will probably * * * and if the Gurkhas were to become wholly confined to Hong Kong, then I think there would be serious effects on their training, and this could well be reflected, although it is an
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