(a) Includes cost of living bonus payable in accordance with the scheme set out in Appendix 4 on page127, and also foreign

service allowance.

(b) Provided under Vote 4, subhead A in 1927.

C.-NURSING SERVICE.

In addition to pay, members of Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service are eligible for Board and Washing Allowance, Uniform Allowance, Lodging, Fuel and Light Allowances, Colonial Allowance, Field Allowance, Servant Allowance, and for Matrons, Charge Pay, in accordance with the scales and conditions laid down in Chapter XXXVI, of King's Regulations.

The decreased provision is due to an anticipated reduction in numbers in Iraq.

D.-FEES, ETC., TO CIVILIAN MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. Civilian Medical Practitioners are employed

(a) Under Contract.-When the services of a Naval, Military or Air Force medical officer are not available the Air Council have authority to engage a civilian medical practitioner to attend on a detachment of the Royal Air Force. The rates of payment are laid down in King's Regulations, Chapter XIX.

(b) Casual Employment.-For attendance on airmen sick on leave, when access to a Naval, Military or Air Force medical officer or hospital is impossible.

Civilian Dental Surgeons.-When a Royal Air Force dental officer is not available the Air Council have authority to engage a civilian dental surgeon for attendance on officers, nurses and airmen who are entitled to and require dental treatment. The rates of payment are laid down in King's Regulations, Chapter XIX.

Consultants with specialist qualifications are occasionally engaged in connection with certain cases or types of case at Royal Air Force hospitals. Remuneration is at special rates approved by the Treasury.

E. CIVILIANS EMPLOYED IN HOSPITALS AND SICK QUARTERS.

The rates of wages paid to civilian employees at home and abroad, including native civilians attached to the Royal Air Force in Egypt, Iraq, Palestine and Aden, are those obtaining locally for similar classes of labour.

Provision is required for personnel at Aden; also for the cost of an analyst and his laboratory staff employed in Iraq, previously provided for in subhead A of Vote 4.

F.-MEDICAL SUPPLIES.

Purchase of medicines, surgical requisites and instruments for R.A.F. hospitals and sick quarters; also the supply of artificial limbs and appliances, including dentures for officers and airmen (King's Regulations, Chapter XIX and Appendix XXI).

G.-PAYMENTS TO HOSPITALS.

Mainly for the maintenance of Royal Air Force personnel in naval and military hospitals (at 12s. a day for officers and 10s. a day for airmen) and in civil hospitals (at varying rates). This subhead also provides for the refund of privately incurred medical or dental expenses, which in certain cases are admissible as a charge to the public.

The only hospitals maintained by the Royal Air Force at home are the general hospitals at Halton and Cranwell and a small officers' hospital at Uxbridge. Hospitals are maintained abroad only at Baghdad in Iraq and Sarafand in Palestine, where the Air Force is responsible for the administration. The small hospital at Aden will also be maintained on the Air Force assuming responsibility for the garrison there.

It is the practice to utilise naval and military hospitals wherever possible with a view to economy and to avoid overlapping.

The provision is for the outfit allowances of officers appointed to commissions in the medical branch of the Royal Air Force. The normal grant is £50.

2. Payments to the War Office in respect of officers and airmen attending Army courses are made at rates laid down from time to time by that Department.

3. Miscellaneous; includes fees payable to members of Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service Advisory Board, and a contribution to the Soldiers', Sailors', and Airmen's Families Association towards the cost of nurses attending families of airmen at certain stations.

J.-APPROPRIATIONS IN AID.

Hospital stoppages of officers and airmen generally and small occasional sales and receipts for fines and mulcts of pay, etc., of airmen of the Medical Service, are credited to this subhead.

Appropriations in Aid of this Vote are no longer received in respect of Middle Eastern Services. (See note on p. 14a.)