'Mesopotamia Commission. Report of the Commission Appointed by Act of Parliament to Enquire into the Operations of War in Mesopotamia, together with a Special Report by Commander J Wedgwood, DSO, MP, and Appendices. London: HMSO, 1917.' [‎52v] (104/248)

102 PART XI.—CAUSES CONTRIBUTING TO THE ERRORS OF JUDGMENT
AND SHORTCOMINGS OF RESPONSIBLE AUTHORITIES.
C. Relations between the Secretary of State and the Governor-General and
THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNCILS.—PRIVATE TELEGRAMS.
23. In addition to these authorised statutory communications it has always been the
practice of the Secretary of State and the Governor-General to communicate privately,
one with another, both by telegram and by letter. These telegrams have, up till quite
recently, been supplementary to and explanatory of the official telegrams sent, which as
a matter of course come before the Governor-General and Secretary of State in Council.
They have also dealt with personal matters, which it is not advisable should be contained
I in official telegrams, and within certain limits they seem to us to be useful, if not necessary
links of intercommunication.
24. All the Statutes relating to the Government of India were consolidated in Acts
which received Royal Assent in 1915 and 1916 ; but in these consolidating Statutes
no mention whatever is made of private communications, nor is authority given either
to the Secretary of State, or the Governor-General to substitute private telegrams for the
prescribed methods of communication laid down by the Statute. All private telegrams
are the property of the sender, and they are not necessarily recorded on the files of the
Department to which their contents may relate ; though they are occasionally so recorded
when the Secretary of State or Governor-General gives express orders to that effect. It
is usually the practice of the Secretary of State and the Governor-General to take away
their private telegrams at the close of their tenure of office, and Lord Crewe informed us
that Lord Morley so acted on vacating the post of Secretary of State for India. There is
therefore no public record of the purport of the vast majority of these private communi
cations. The substitution of private for public telegrams in recent years has apparently
so developed as to become almost the regular channel of official inter-communication.
25. A very important document was laid before us containing a number of telegrams
of the gravest consequence relating to the Oversea Expeditions and Forces which the
Indian Government were ordered at the instance of the Imperial Government to provide.
Every telegram in the whole series, except one, on both sides was marked private, though
it was stated by the Viceroy that the substance of the last telegram would be confirmed
in an official telegram.
A large number—if not the larger proportion—of the telegrams quoted in our report
referring to the advance on Baghdad are marked “ Private.” One of the most important
of these private telegrams, conveying new and serious information as to the possible
concentration of 60,000 Turkish troops near Baghdad, was, in consequence of its being
marked “ Private,” not filed in the Military Department, and was not transmitted to
Sir John Nixon in Mesopotamia.
26. The substitution of private for official telegrams tends to dispossess the Council
of the functions, which by Statute they are entitled to exercise. Both the late Secretary
of State for India and the late Governor-General justified recourse to these methods of
communication on the ground that in time of war urgency and secrecy are of paramount
importance. We at once accept that proposition ; but it is clear in our mind that secrecy
can be established by a properly regulated procedure ; and as regards urgency, as both
Councils are small in numbers, there seems to us no difficulty whatever, at any rate in times
of emergency, in insisting on their meeting every day.
27. We have been informed by two Members of the Governor-General’s Council that
according to their recollection the Council was never consulted as to, nor were they privy
to the campaign in Mesopotamia. Their opinion was not asked as regards the advance
to Baghdad, though occasionally, from time to time, some information was given to
them in the shape of conversation at the Council. This statement, though traversed
in details by Lord Hardinge, is in the main, we believe, correct.
The despatch of any oversea expedition from India is largely regulated by considera
tions of internal security, and, as the maintenance of order in India is a primary function
of the Council of the Governor-General, it would seem to us a necessary consequence that
they ought to be consulted in connection with any oversea expedition or with any serious
depletion of Indian military establishments.
s
28. As our report has already indicated, the main difficulty to be overcome in Meso
potamia was the provision of adequate river transport, and the establishment of an effective
base at Basra for distribution of the reinforcements and supplies despatched to that place.
We cannot but believe that, if the civilian Members of the Council had from the