Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎38r] (75/544)

5
Captain Wagstaff's
Irregulars.
3. General Macdonogh said he wished to raise another question,
namely, the amount of pay to be given to the irregular troops
which Captain Wagstaff was now engaged in raising. At the
present moment Wagstaff was between Zinjan and Mianeh. The
pay suggested for these “ irregulars ” was 12 krans a day, which he
did not regard as excessive having regard to the facts that the men
had to feed themselves, and that the cost of living had increased
very much. The Turks were paying their troops only 2 krans less,
and they permitted them to loot villages. The English equivalent
would amount to 8s. a day. We had no regular troops of any
description in that region, but we were raising 5,000 irregulars,
exclusive of the 1,800 levies in the Ramadan area.
The Chairman thought the Committee should proceed with
caution. It seemed possible that this might develop into an
independent military operation involving guerrilla warfare, and
costing some 60,000L a month.
Mr. Keynes pointed out this expense could be afforded provided
that savings were effected in other directions. The Treasury could
afford this amount if, as now seemed possible, the disappearance of
Bicharakoff relieves them of a monthly expenditure of 4,000,000
krans. Their estimates, however, did not at present include the
financing of our people on the road.
The Chairman regarded it as the inevitable result of the
sanction already given to launch this force. He wondered whether
India might not be asked to ease the financial burden by paying for
a larger share of our expenses in Mesopotamia.
Mr. Montagu said that his Department and the Indian Govern
ment had under consideration the question of a new contribution
from India to the cost of the war. Both the Viceroy and his chief
financial adviser were, he understood, in favour of this. There
had, however, recently been a big currency crisis and so the matter
had not yet been brought belore Parliament. India would certainly
prefer that her contribution should go towards meeting the expenses
in Mesopotamia, which was a real theatre of war, rather than those
which we were incurring on our present policy in Persia.
Mr. Keynes said the question was largely not so much
one of economy as of obtaining the necessary currency at all.
Sir Charles Marling had wired, on the 9th June, to say "that the
chief manager of the Imperial Bank of Persia has informed him that
sales of exchange were at a standstill. The bank depended on
these sales to replenish its coffers for it could neither import
silver nor get the consignment on hand minted. It could not,
therefore, further impoverish its present cash position. The
manager had further warned Marling that he might not be able
to finance all the requirements of His Majesty’s Government and
that he had already been embarrassed by having to provide the
heavy drawings on account of General Dunsterville, while he did
not at present see how he could finance the prospective Meshed
requirements for the purchase of cotton and wool, &c. Any
forced sales of Exchange would lower rates ruinously. The
manager concluded by repeating his previous proposal that krans
should be minted in Bombay, and urging the immediate provision
in that way of a currency reserve of krans at Baghdad. Mr. Keynes
said he must warn the Committee that things were certainly serious
when the Imperial Bank of Persia felt it was nearing the limits of
its resources. As regards the proposal that krans should be minted
at Bombay, he said that this was a very slow procedure, as it took
three months to get them from Bombay to Teheran ; moreover, the
proposal was not acceptable to the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
Mr. Montagu pointed out that, as a matter of fact, at the
present time the mints in India were held up by want of silver for
turning out rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. .
[365—12]
C