LINDSAY— SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' INSURANCE. 635 



all children take precedence of those of a divorced wife. Everj 

 enlisted man is required to file with the War Risk Bureau a state- 

 ment, for which an allotment and allowance blank is furnished, show- 

 ing whether or not he has any dependents, and if so how many, and 

 what are their blood or marriage relationships to him. 



Nearly a million and a half such statements are now on file in the 

 War Risk Bureau and about 830,000 of them claim that they have 

 no dependents for whom allotment of pay is compulsory or for 

 whom they wish to make a voluntary allotment. Some of these no 

 doubt will be found to have a wife or child for whom they seek to 

 evade responsibility, and such wife or child or some one on their 

 behalf should make application direct to the bureau if they do not 

 receive the allotment and the man will be brought to account. If an 

 allotment is made for any beneficiary and through inadvertence or 

 otherwise no request has been made for a family allowance, the 

 wife, child or beneficiary, or some one on their behalf, should apply 

 to this bureau for the family allowance. Some will later want to 

 •make voluntary allotments for Class B dependents when perhaps 

 they find it more convenient to do so. Class B dependents for whom 

 the allotment is voluntary include parents, brothers, sisters and 

 grandchildren. Parents include grandparents and step-parents 

 either of the person in the service or of the spouse.^ Brothers and 

 sisters include those of the half blood and step-brothers and step- 

 sisters and brothers and sisters through adoption. Even if Class B 

 dependents are in want, an enlisted man is not compelled to make 

 an allotment for their support, but he must do so before the govern- 

 ment will pay any family allowance to them. 



The allowance in all cases both for Class A and Class B de- 

 pendents is granted only when applied for, after the necessary 

 amount of allotment of pay has been made. 



The allotment must in practically every case where an allowance 

 is asked for be at least $15 per month, and must equal the amount 



3 An Act of June 25, 1918, amended the definition of the term " parent " 

 so as to make it include a father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, father 

 through adoption, mother through adoption, step-father, step-mother, either 

 of the person in the service or of the spouse. 



