182 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
of those who were eligible for the award, closing off any other possible
claimants. It passed with little discussion. Lambert requested adding the
phrase ‘marine services’ to the Navy subclause to bring in the units operating
on African lakes and out of Hong Kong. He also made sure that the various
service branch references included all forces of the Dominions, Colonies,
Dependencies, and Protectorates. The inclusion of women, civilians, and the
Merchant Marine passed without discussion, an indication of some informal
communications in the interim between the meetings. All were included
subject to the condition that they were at the time of the act under the
authority of one of the regularly constituted armed services.^64
Clause VIII reworked and streamlined the mechanism of recommendation
and approval. The provisional bestowal allowed under the original warrant
was quietly dropped, and the suggestion from the first meeting of requiring
conclusive proof was incorporated. As a sop to the RAF and the Navy
Ponsonby’s original suggestion that the Army requirement of two witnesses
become standard was not included. Instead, the veracity of the claim was to
be determined ‘according to the customs of the recommending authority.’^65
The elective principle was retained in modified and standardized form in
Clause IX. The primary fear was giving Crosses too freely; under the original
proposal up to eight per 100 men was possible, depending on which service
branch was involved, far above the ratio generated by single awards. Colonel
Montague-Scott reported that in a campaign the Army generally expected a
ratio of one in 5000. To have the possibility of a single engagement of a
half-company create eight VCs was unacceptable. After a lengthy debate it
was resolved to set the rate at three for actions involving up to 100 men,
four for any action involving up to 300 men, and cases where more than
300 were involved would receive ‘special consideration.’ The election was
to be made by secret ballot.^66
Quite some time was spent discussing the subject of pensions, but this
involved little more than crossing t’s and dotting i’s. The final aspect
addressed was the question of forfeiture, which translated to the new warrant
with nothing more than a modernization of the language. Having reached a
consensus on this draft, it was resolved to print up a new copy and circulate
it for a final time to the various departments for final approval. That having
been accomplished, it would be sent to the Secretary of State for War, Lord
Milner, for submission to the king.^67
Everett had lost in his opposition to the inclusion of women, but the
subsequent decision to tighten the regulations achieved his ends. By linking
the Cross even more tightly to aggressive combat actions where ‘you have
to do a bit of fighting – you have to shoot somebody,’ the committee made
lily
(lily)
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