'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.' [‎32v] (64/248)

62
PART IX.—TRANSPORT.
C. Royal Indian Marine.
66 . After an interval the Royal Indian Marine Department was created. It was not
a naval force in the real meaning of the term. It was largely occupied in transport work,
the movement of troops by sea. Its headquarters were fixed at Bombay, certainly the
most suitable place for them. Some of the officers of the Department were detailed for
duty at great Indian seaports, and worked under the local Governments. These officers
do not deal with the traffic or with the loading, unloading, or quick despatch of commercial
vessels.
67. The Royal Indian Marine Department is under the Army Department at the centre
of the Government, and gets orders from it. At the same time the Royal Indian Marine
Department sometimes gets orders from the Quartermaster General, who is a member, so
to speak, of the Commander-in-Chief’s Department. Occasionally also the Royal Indian
Marine receives something very like instructions from the Indian General Staff. There
seem, therefore, to be in effect three sources from which orders to the Director, Royal
Indian Marine, emanate. The Military Secretary to the Government of India in
the Army Department, when sending communications to the Director Royal Indian
Marine, heads them “ Marine Department,” and these two words are the only indication
that the Central Government in India has any direct connection with maritime affairs.
There is no one at the seat of Administration with nautical experience or knowledge.
The Director of the Royal Indian' Marine was not granted—at any rate did not exercise—
any initiative in maritime or nautical matters. He had, in his own words, to wait until
he was told what was wanted.
♦
68 . The time of the Director and Senior Officers of the Indian Marine is much taken
up with mere office or desk work. The amount of writing which they have to get through
—or at all events do get through—can only be described as enormous. This involves
intolerably long hours of work in an office when open-air activity and supervision are
of much greater importance. Much of the writing work requires no maritime experience
or nautical knowledge, both of which are often necessary in the case of open-air supervision
when a great war is in progress.
69. The Director of the Royal Indian Marine gave to the Commission a list of the
duties, the discharge of which he considered rendered it impossible for him to visit Mesopo
tamia and see for himself the actual state of things there. Most of the duties specified
required neither maritime experience nor nautical knowledge, and could have been performed
by any alert business man, even though he may have never been on blue water in his life.
We feel strongly that the Roval Indian Marine Department requires reorganisation
with a view to giving its Director a higher status and a staff adequate to his work.