[The growing First World War pensions crisis discussed by a member of the government.] Autograph Letter Signed from William Hayes Fisher [the future Lord Downham] to Willoughby Hyett Dickinson, discussing the problem ‘full of difficulty’.

See Fisher’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Earlier in 1915 he had joined the Asquith government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, and he would retain this post until June of 1917, when Lloyd George would promote him to the cabinet as President of the Local Government Board. The recipient Willoughby Hyett Dickinson (1859-1943), later an influential proponent of the League of Nations, began his career as a Liberal MP. He was knighted in 1918, and elevated to the peerage as Baron Dickinson of Painswick in 1930, the same year in which he joined the Labour Party. A significant letter, reflecting the developing consensus in Parliament in the face of the fast-increasing burden of the First World War. 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with pin holes to one corner and a large ‘2’ in pencil at the head of the first page. Folded twice. Large bold signature: ‘W Hayes Fisher’. Addressed to ‘The Right Hon. W. H. Dickinson, M.P.’ Fisher begins by thanking Dickinson for his ‘Memorandum on the subject of pensions to dependants. It is the result, as you say, of an extensive acquisition of knowledge on your part, through sitting as Chairman of the War Office Appeal Committee.’ Fisher considers it ‘a useful document to all of us who are trying to form our opinions and form the opinions of others on a problem which is full of difficulty’. He agrees with him that ‘to base permanent pensions on the principles which have formed the basis of the Separation Allowances’ would not only be ‘unjust both to the individual and to the State’, but also ‘absurd’, and suggests the setting up of ‘some weighty judicial tribunal composed of men and women who have had a wide and detailed experience of the difficulties of this question’. He thinks it may be possible to ‘make partial use of a flat rate for certain categories of dependants’, but agrees with Dickinson that any tribunal must consider the details. Furthermore, it appears to Fisher, ‘there will have to be an infinite variety of decisions and infinite trouble taken if we are to do justice’.