'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. [‎53r] (112/168)

83
earlier, the saving would ha™ ^ ,
were kept out of the Tun an deranged W drUffls ‘ins
press too heavily upon one another ar,Z i"^ •“ . that the tins did not
so that the leaking tin could at once Se reSdM?,‘ im ? "f at 0Ilce visible,
carefully the"woode“cov«rngfof ThHus year ’ ^^ “owevef
S° per cent ' - iXTathS ptSL —£|
crushed loeflly rai Verri s To ei s Io f M f Tthe n Ltrof a] c ayS pr 5 ,ferabIe to grain
Persia that makes a really efficient mill stonr AM thTT™^ 00 ', ln East
the gram is hard, with the result that as an nffii 1 • h t ?- ne 18 soft an d all
Communication once remarked “ The stone “ s P« ctl , I, g °n the Lines of
gram grinds the stone It. was tlms ver^ ,l;ffi“n S / md the ^ain, but the
animals. Milling was slightly imnroved hv tu° CrUsh ba, ' le y "ell for
heavy weight, but this involved m!.re labour 8 v® Uppe , r mil1 stone with
with the Persian coolie A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory. . As an alternative pushing and was unpopular
with parching plant constructed 0 ^ I e ll^ifo? 1 ’^ P P6t WaS SUpplied
‘ Transport Training Notes ", an^as far as nosfiM ^ PryCe and Wt;bb ’s
instead of crushed. The large white vram of Rhor! ^ ? 8 lssued parched
" i » «“ —a« ™ —
MM British and Indian Supply and Transport formations.
Allusion was made in the note conepmmo- + 1 ^ ^ •
Transport personnel to the difficulty arisiuo from Brftish^offi ° f f U - Pply , snd
in command of Supply and Transport units w tbe\ bein S plac c d
knowledge of Hindustani. Another P difficuUv thaTat ^he it aC t < i UirinS any
buted to a certain amount of unrest in No SMechanicafTr contri -
was the lack of precise rules as to the relation of British ntW PO t P 0 ' npan y
ranks. This is a subjecl upon which the existing reonkrit r - aQkS to Ind,an
assistance. It is belived that the only service in thich the subfe™ b ery ‘t®
been thoroughly threshed out, as a matter of ditipline and alsoi ^ „ S ° far
British and Indian Military law, is the Boval^'inlilmli t0
detailed rules on the subject for observance'in Sapper and Mini Pn^ d °- Wn
In East Persia, as soon as the necessity for laying d' wn fixed r.dec Pan l? S '
subject in Supply and Transport units became apnar^t it w„ a ‘'i 6
foHow the lead of the Sappers and Miners. Orders were therefore issued pre-
venting British other ranks exercising any military authority ^ 6
Indian ranks. That is to say, thought ias thefr Lty whf/p^^n ch^
_ ec in , 1< l al S ^ cl1 as lr ? work-shops, to supervise and direct that work they
were yet forbidden to exercise military discipline over the Indian ranks whose
work they were supervising. If an Indian rank failed to carry out a British
other rank s directions on technical matters, it was for the British other rank to
report the matter to an officer, hut not for himself to place the Indian rank
under arrest for disobedience of orders. When Indian ranks paraded for drffi
of any Kmd, they paraded under the senior Indian non-commissioned officer
or Indian officer (if any) and not under a British other rank. Similarly—and
this was perhaps the most important point of all—if an Indian rank had a
request to make or grievance to bring forward, it was through an Indian non
commissioned officer and Indian officer (if any) that he represented his case
to his British officer. In this way the direct access of Indian ranks to their
British Commanding Officer, which is a cardinal principled the discipline of the
Indian Army, was preserved. The same principle was applied to Supply
formations in which the Indian ranks, though not fighting men, were enrolled
followers. Since many Indian ranks of the Supply and Transport Corps a-e
now either fighting men or have the same status as the fighting man, and since
presumably there will continue to be many Supply and Transport units' com
prising both British other ranks and Indian ranks, it seems that the time has
come when the Standing Orders of the Supply and Transport Corps should
contain as clear directions on the subject of the relation between British other
rank and Indian ranks, as are contained in the orders which govern a similar