15 December 2013

Dear Sir,

We would like to make a couple of comments about Mr Marshall of BAD’s press release of late last week.

First, in the debate over whether conscription is a violation of human rights, we are happy to stand in solidarity with learned judges in just about every court in Bermuda, together with those of the Privy Council in England, all of whom have rejected Mr Marshall’s arguments. As far as we know, he has failed in every legal challenge to conscription that he has mounted.

Second, he claims that all eight of us are receiving “healthy pensions“ as a result of our service in the Regiment. For the record, service as a part-time soldier of the Regiment is not pensionable at all. Service in the permanent staff, in which Commanding Officers are counted during their time in that post, counts towards a pension in the civil service in accordance with the restrictions on age and length of service that apply to civil servants.

Of our group of eight, only one receives a pension, earned as a result of service in both the Regiment and the civil service. Another, as a result of service both in the Regiment and the civil service, will begin to receive a small pension in about ten years, when he is age-qualified. None of the other six will qualify for a government pension at all if they continue to work in the private sector.

All of us served in the Regiment as non-pensionable, poorly-paid part-time soldiers for many years in addition to the time we spent as Commanding Officers. We did that because we wanted to serve this country, not because we were trying to tap into some pot of gold that exists only in Mr Marshall’s fertile imagination.

Service to country is what the Regiment is all about — we think it a pity that, that concept is so obviously not understood by Mr Marshall and his BAD group.

The Eight Colonels