'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.' [‎106r] (211/248)

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7. I he proposed changes I have now examined with close attention in
Council. The position of the Secretary of the Army Department is, as Your
Excellency has always perceived, the pivot on which the discussion turns.
W hether any rule that the wit of man could devise on paper would effectively
secure the absolute independence of this representative of the Government of
India in the Army Department, and guarantee with certainty that the Governor-
General could make sure of competent information and counsel enabling him to
test proposals coming to him from the Army Department, may be doubtful.
But I am advised here unanimously, and I consider, that if the supremacy of the
civil government is to be real and effectual, and if the Governor-General in
Council is to be in a position to fulfil the duty cast upon him by the Statute of
1833, of superintending, directing, and controlling military affairs in India,
then it is necessary that the Secretary to the Government of India in the Army
Department should have status, powers, duties, and responsibilities precisely
similar to those of the Secretaries to the Government of India in the other
Departments.
The rules as drafted and forwarded to me by Your Excellency would
appear to effect a practical amalgamation between the new Army Department
and the Headquarters Staff. The Commander-in-Chief becomes necessarily the
head of both, and Rule 3 (a) provides that “ papers and cases,” may be
submitted to him direct by various members of the Headquarters Staff. It
might thus happen, I conceive, that a very important matter might be submitted
to the Commander-in-Chief (as Member in Charge of the Army Department) by
the Chief of the Staff, and might be placed before the Governor-General in
Council, although the Secretary of the Army Department would practically
have had no opportunity of saying anything on the merits of the case. H
would, as I understand, be quite impossible in any other Department—in tho
Financial Department, for instance,—that a matter should be thus dealt with
by the Member in Charge, without passing through the hands of the Secretary.
8. It appears to me that the members of the Army Headquarters Staff,
while continuing to perform as heretofore their duties as members of that staff
in all matters in the control of the Commander-in-Chief as such, should, on the
other hand, be Departmental Officers of the Army Department, though without
any of the powers of a Secretary. In their two separate and distinct capacities
the members of the Headquarters Staff-—that is to say, the Chief of the General
Staff, should such an officer be created, the Quartermaster-General, the
Adjutant-General, the Director of Ordnance, the Principal Medical Officer, and
the Military Secretary,—will thus peform two separate and distinct functions
one, the function appertaining to their respective duties as Members of the Head-
quarters Staff pure and simple ; the other, the function appertaining to their
duties as officers of the Army Department. From this point of view, it would
be incorrect in fact, as it seems undesirable in principle, to speak of the
amalgamation of the Army Headquarters Staff with the Government of India
Secretariat. For some purposes, and for those only, the members of the
Headquarters Staff will be brought within the Army Department.
It follows from this that no member of the Headquarters Staff, when
engaged on the work of the Army Department, should have any power to
submit direct to the Member in Charge of the Army Department (that is to say,
to the Commander-in-Chief) any case in that department, or to issue in regard
io such work in it any order on behalf of the Government of India.
9. Now, in so far as the proposed Rules do not keep the Army
Department distinct from the Headquarters Staff, and in so far as they put the
Secretary of that department on a lower pedestal than other secretaries, they
would depart from the intention of the scheme set forth in my predecessor’s
Despatch of 31st May, 1905, and accepted, though reluctantly, and subject to
modifications, as I have already said, by Your Excellency’s predecessor on
0th duly, 1905. To that extent I regret that I am unable to approve them.
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