THE INDIAN FIELD POST OFFICE
In a country where there is seldom perfect peace it is only natural
that the Post Office must accustom itself to war conditions, and the
Field Postal Service has been a feature of the Indian Post Office for
more than sixty years. During that period there have been over forty
wars and expeditions, extending from Burma to the Mediterranean, and,
as postal arrangements were required for the forces engaged, the Field
Post Office system in India has been gradually developed and perfected,
and is now recognized as an important part of the military organization
of the country.
Field Post Office arrangements used to be in the hands of the
Postmaster-General of the Punjab, and he maintained lists of men
willing to serve. In 1918, however, owing to the wide distribution of
the postal staff in various parts of the world, it was found necessary
to bring the Field Post organization under the immediate control of
the Director-General. When an expedition is announced, the forces of
the Post Office are immediately mobilized according to the strength of
the field army, and, as the staff required for a brigade and division
has been settled by long experience, no time is lost in getting the
necessary number of men to the assembling stations.
The regulations for the working of Field Post Offices are laid down
in the Indian Field Service Manual and the Postal Manual (War),
two handbooks issued by the Indian Army Department; and a complete
equipment of tents and furniture, sufficient for three base post
offices, fifty first-class and twenty second-class field offices,
and for the use of the supervisory staff, is kept at Lahore ready
for immediate despatch. When the Department has to make its own
arrangements for the carriage of mails between the base post office and
the field offices, overseers are employed to supervise the transit. The
establishment laid down for a base office is one postmaster, two deputy
or assistant postmasters, fifteen clerks and ten menials, but these
numbers must necessarily vary with the number of field offices required
with the different units.
Postal officials in the field are subject to full military discipline
under the Army Act. Superior officers wear field service khaki uniform
with badges of rank and the letters "Post" in brass on the shoulders.
A Deputy Postmaster-General or Assistant Director-General of the
Post Office ranks as a Lieutenant-Colonel, and a Superintendent as
Major, Captain or Lieutenant, according to his grade and length of
service. Subordinate officials, if Europeans, are classed as Assistant
Commissaries, Sub-Conductors or Sergeants, according to their pay, and
Indians are given rank as Subadars, Jemadars, Havildars or Naiks. Field
allowances, in addition to pay, are fixed according to a sanctioned
scale, the rate for a Director or Superintendent being 25 per cent
of his pay, subject to a minimum monthly allowance of Rs.100 in the
case of the latter. Inspectors and Postmasters draw Rs.90 a month in
addition to pay, other subordinates being remunerated at a lower rate.
In virtue of the military rank held by them, officers and subordinates
are entitled to all privileges and advantages for service in the field,
such as wound pensions, family pensions, medals and compensation for
loss of baggage.
The officer in charge of field post offices is attached to the
head-quarters of an Expeditionary Force as adviser to the Military
Authorities on all postal matters; he is required to visit the base and
field post offices as frequently as possible, and is responsible for
the proper working and efficiency of mail arrangements. He arranges
with headquarters for carriage of mails between the base and the
field, fixes the hours of despatch of mails from all post offices
and the hours during which money orders are issued, and also settles
the question of making over cash collections to the nearest Field
Paymaster, Treasure Chest Officer, Regimental Accounts Officer or Post
Commandant, as the case may be.
The development of the Field Postal System has been gradual and has
undergone many changes. The earliest record of a regular Indian Post
Office staff proceeding for active service with a military force is
in connection with the Persian Expedition of 1856. The establishment
consisted of two clerks, an interpreter (moonshee) and four peons,
and, as no suitable departmental officer could be found to take charge
of the arrangements, the Government of Bombay appointed the Military
Paymaster of the Persian Expeditionary Force to take control.
The work accomplished by the Post Office during the Indian Mutiny has
been described in a separate chapter. Every office situated within the
wide area of the disturbances or on the line of march of the troops
performed the functions of a field post office, the control of the
arrangements devolving on the chief local civil or military authority
in places where there was no departmental officer of sufficient
seniority or rank to hold charge. The great services rendered by the
Post Office horse transit and bullock train establishments to the
Army were a prominent feature of the campaign. Separate field post
offices accompanied the moving columns under Generals Havelock, Outram,
Campbell, Hugh Rose, Hope Grant and other leaders. Twenty years later,
when the Afghan war broke out, the Army had again to rely on the Post
Office for the transport of mails and military stores for hundreds of
miles through the Khyber and Bolan passes into Afghanistan.
The extension of the railways to the frontiers of India has put an
end to this branch of postal enterprise. Mail tonga lines worked by
contractors still flourish on routes where there are no railways, but
they are being gradually supplanted by motor conveyances.
A scheme under which the Post Office should maintain a large number
of motor mail vans, which could be used in time of war for military
transport, has already been suggested, and it is one well worth
consideration. An arrangement of this kind should go far towards
solving the problem of maintaining transport in times of peace, and
should prove advantageous and economical to both the Army and the Post
Office.
The success of the Indian Field Post Office in the numerous wars and
expeditions in which it has been employed can be vouched for by the
reports of commanding officers. Experience has been bought by long
practice, and the Department never loses an opportunity of training its
staff for military service. At the great military manoeuvres which are
frequently held during the cold weather in India the troops engaged
are always accompanied by field post offices fully equipped for war
conditions, with the result that there is always a large body of men
in the Post Office thoroughly trained in this kind of work. On field
service the postal official is "Nobody's child." He has to fend for
himself, and, although transport is told off for the conveyance of camp
equipment and mails, it is seldom forthcoming when required. The Army
Head-quarters Staff looks after its own post office, but is inclined to
regard the others as an encumbrance, and this attitude has developed a
faculty of "slimness" in the field postal officer, which he uses for
defeating military regulations. He has become an expert in stealing
transport; a mule, a cart, a few coolies, a motor lorry, even an idle
railway train, all serve his purpose as occasion rises, and his motto
is "Get there, if not by fair means, then somehow," and get there he
generally does. He has an uncanny instinct for finding out the secret
destination of his brigade and is often on the ground, sorting the
mail, before the troops arrive.
Mr. Charles Sheridan, a very well-known member of the Department,
used to tell an amusing story of the horror of a senior staff officer
meeting him one day on a frontier road pronounced absolutely unfit for
wheeled traffic. Mr. Sheridan was driving along merrily with the mails
in a two-horsed tonga; it was the shortest road and he took it, and the
staff had to reconsider seriously their strategic plans, simply because
the Superintendent of the Postal Service would not act according to
military instructions.
The heart of the field postal system in any campaign is the Base
Office. It is there that all information concerning the movements of
regiments and units is carefully recorded. Lists of officers are kept
in alphabetical order, and these lists are kept corrected from day to
day on information received from the various field offices. The Base
Office controls the main routes of mails to the divisional and brigade
offices, it issues instructions and is ready to supply reliefs. It
searches for missing men, disposes of undeliverable correspondence and
has a hospital for repairing articles damaged in transit; in fact, the
smooth running of the whole organization depends on the work done at
the Base.
The arrangements for conveying the mails between the base office and
the field offices devolves on the supervising officers, and endless
difficulties have to be faced in order to obtain transport. A great
deal depends on the personality of the postal officer in charge. If
he is a pleasant fellow and popular with the transport staff he can
get most things done, but, if he is insistent on his rights and has
not learnt the meaning of "give and take" on a campaign, he will get
nothing but excuses and regrets, the mail bags will be left behind in
the last camp, irate Colonels will write to their personal friend the
Director-General and the promising career of a conscientious public
servant will be seriously injured.
In Appendix H is given a list of the most important expeditions in
which field post offices have been employed, with a brief account
of the arrangements made on each occasion. Most of these were small
frontier wars and little difficulty was felt in providing the
personnel. The Great War, however, was a very different matter. It
necessitated the despatch of large numbers of post offices all over
the world, and the demand on the resources of the Post Office of India
was on such a vast scale that an account of it has been reserved for a
separate chapter.