The Army Pensions Bill, 1943, seeks to remedy certain defects in that complex code of Acts known as the Army Pensions Acts, 1923-1941, and in one or two respects to extend the existing provisions of that code.
The first defect in the existing legislation is that no provision is made for disablement due to disease attributable to service if the disease was contracted after 30th September, 1924. Disablement due to wound or injury received at any time is covered by the Acts, but disablement due to discase, no matter how grave the disease, and no matter how great the disablement, is not covered, if it was contracted after the 30th September, 1924. That omission or, perhaps, exclusion in the Acts has frequently been the subject of some adverse comment, but the official view was that, under the sheltered conditions of peace-time soldiering, any ordinary disease, though contracted in Army service, could scarcely be deemed to have arisen out of that service, and would, probably, have arisen if the man had never entered the Army, But the sheltered conditions of peace cannot be considered to exist in the Army since it was expanded at the beginning of the emergency period, because both officers and men are frequently exposed, especially during manæuvres and field exercises, to conditions little short of those that would obtain under active service, and, accordingly, the official view regarding the incidence of disease is no longer valid. Hence, in this Bill it is proposed to make pensionable disablement due to disease attributable to service during the period of the emergency.
In making this provision, we are giving the Army the benefits of the latest legislation on the subject. The Act of 1927, obviously designed to deal with peace conditions, provided that, for disablement due to disease to be pensionable, it had not only to be contracted before 30th September, 1924, but it had also to reach at least a degree of 80 per cent, at the date of the applicant's examination by the Army Pensions Board. The Act of 1937, however, reduced the degree of disablement for pensions purposes from 80 per cent. to 50 per cent., and we are giving the men disabled, during the emergency, the advantages of that reduction. Hence, under this Bill, if an ex-soldier or officer, on examination by the board, is found to be 80 per cent. or over disabled by disease attributable to his service during the emergency period, he will be entitled to the rates set out in Parts I and II of Section 3, sub-section (5) of this Bill. If, however, the award be not final but temporary and if, on subsequent examination, he be deemed by the board to be less than 80 per cent. but, at least, 50 per cent. disabled, he will be entitled to a final pension of £1 a week; but if, on the other hand, at the first examination, he is found to be less than 80 per cent. but at least 50 per cent. disabled, he will be entitled to a final pension of 15/- a week.
The second defect in the Acts is that the rates of pension for disablement, whether due to injury or due to disease, are inadequate. The pension at present provided for an ex-soldier, totally disabled, is 26/- a week plus 5/- a week if married. The inadequacy of that pension is apparent in itself, but it is brought home with greater force when related to the victims of such a disaster as that which, unfortunately, occurred at the Glen of Imaal. Here, we had young men in the prime of life and in the prime of their manhood suddenly thrust from sunlight into complete darkness for the rest of their lives and the only sum we could offer in compensation was 26/- a week. My proposal, therefore, in Section 3, sub-section (5), Part II of the Bill, is to improve the existing rates by increasing the disablement pension from 26/- to 42/- a week, and to double the married pension from 5/- to 10/- a week. Even that increase is not all that I should like it to be, but, at any rate, it has to be conceded that it is a generous contribution compared with the existing rates which I took over.