IOR/L/PS/10/805/2

This part concerns the disposal of river craft in Mesopotamia and contains material relating to:

• The arrangements made by Lord Inchcape [James Lyle MacKay], of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company Limited, with the Ministry of Munitions towards the purchase of the Government’s surplus river craft in Mesopotamia
• The vessels purchased by the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company from the Government through financial arrangements in Bombay [Mumbai], from March to August 1920
• The transfer of the Inland Water Transport Department in Mesopotamia from military to civilian authorities, and the amount of military transportation vessels to be maintained
• The suggestion of the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, to the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, that they convince the civilian and military authorities respectively to agree to the sale of the river fleet in Mesopotamia
• The wishes of General James Aylmer Lowthorpe Haldane to retain a portion of the river craft until the railway from Basrah [Basra] to Baghdad has proved its reliability, and consideration that he can carry his supplies by water more cheaply than could be done by possible purchasers
• The criticism of the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, of British Army control over the oil fleet as being ‘uneconomical’, for charging three times that of civilian organisations and railway transportation
• The financial statement of the Ministry of Munitions to Parliament on the ‘Disposal of Surplus Government Property’, together with a ‘Memorandum on Disposals’ (ff 40-47)
• The schedules of the Inland Water Transport Headquarters, Basrah, for fitting out and delivering the vessels to Keti Bandar, Calcutta [Kolkata] and Rangoon [Yangon] (ff 34-37)
• The shortage of personnel in the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force to make the arrangements for the delivery of vessels to the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company
• The observation by the War Office that it would entail an actual loss to make the vessels (all but nine) seaworthy and deliver them to Lord Inchcape under the stipulations
• The responsibility for policing inland waterways in Mesopotamia and the possible takeover, by civil authorities, of four armed gunboats on loan from the Admiralty
• The ‘non-delivery’ of river craft to the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company due to the change in the military’s position
• The reluctance of British military authorities in Mesopotamia to place river transport solely under private control, in case of a possible emergency in Government transportation.