'REPORT on the Working of the Line of Communication AND ON THE Withdrawal of the British Military Mission IN EAST PERSIA, 1919-20. GENERAL STAFF INDIA. [‎16v] (37/168)

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Meshed to Birjand, in accordance with purchasing and backloading pro
grammes which were periodically given him by the Assistant Dnector, Supply
and Transport, to carry out.
In determining the amount of supplies that it would be economical to
where it was required was more often the determining factor.
The prices in East Persia were sometimes much higher than Indian prices,
but the difference w'as as nothing to the heavy transportation charges that had
to be incurred on the Southern half of the main Eine of Communications
where the transport itself had to be fed entirely with supplies e^-lndia. On
the other hand the maundage or hired transport that plied from Sistan to
Shusp or from Khorasan to Birjand maintained itself, and thus the only addi
tion to the cost of forage when conveyed by it to a distant post was the
maundage rate, or the cost of hiring camels at so much per day. M he.*i
however the forage had to he carried on animals to w T hom rations were issued
(whether free or on payment at stock book rate), the cost of delivering those
rations to the posts wher^ they were required by the transport had to be added
to the cost of the net quantity deliveied. In order, for instance, to deliver
one ton of forage weekly at Birjand from Duzdap on such transport, it was
necessary to deliver four tons in addition every week at Shusp, for the camels
that delivered the net load of one ton from Shusp to Birjand, and to lay in
still more at Safedawa for those wmrking thence to Shusp, and more again at
Hurmuk for those working from Hurmuk to Safedawa. These additions ta
the maundage actually charged were all part of the real cost of any forage
that had to be delivered at Birjand from Railhead, and therefore, it was actually
cheaper to pay a relatively high price for an article in Khorasan or Sistan,
since the transport and incidental charges from those places to destination
were relatively small. As a matter of fact the price of cereals in Sistan
compared for the most part favourably with Indian prices.
(2) Animal Transport. —Camel convoys in March 1920, were still
organised on the system that had been in force for more than a year.
Each section of the line had its own quota of transport, which as a rule
worked only in that section, though from time to time it was necessary to
take camels from one section to another to meet some particular change
in the general military situation, or in the arrangements for procuring
supplies. The convoys v'ere either ‘-Connecting” or “Subsidiary”. The
Connecting Convoys worked to a fixed time-table and connected with the
connecting convoys of the adjacent Sections. The progress of a consignment
despatched by a connecting convoy w'ould, therefore, be timed ahead wdth
accuracy from Meshed to Duzdap or Duzdap to Meshed, or between any tuo
posts en route. Parties of troops despatched up and down the Line normally
moved by “ Connecting Convoy ”. Sufficient camels were maintained for
Connecting Convoy duty to allow of ten days rest a month, while with one or
two exceptions no camels marched more than seven days consecutively and in
the large majority of cases not more than five days and in some only four davs.
The Connecting Convoys from Hurmuk to Meshed were partly furnished by
organised Military Camel Corps, but were supplemented from Hurmuk to
Jumrn by Sunder Dass camels on special terms of hire, and from Jumin to
lurbat by hind Turbati Camels, and from Turbat to Meshed by hired Meshedi
camels. The connecting convoys between Hurmuk and Duzdap were entirely
supplud try hired ca.nels, sometimes by those of Sunder Dass and sometimes
by the so-called Political Camels ’ that is to say, camels whose owners had
been induced m the Autumn of 1918 by the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Ohagai, to take
up carnage contracts on the Line of Communications.
S‘"f e . the departure of several Camel Corps for India in the summer
Cnnr,»lvi n ad been , to . intr oduce the hired element into the
each of the Mo nV< ^ S a - ldat r? 6 t '' ma ,0 exten d the range over which
rtat-from Dmln e r a l? m8 ° rpS , For ’ ^pt in the short
»ta = ( trom Dutdap to Huimuk, tt was desirable still to have a number of