The Accounts Department is responsible for Finance, Accounts, Audit, and the disbursement of cash for the Army in the field. It is under the Financial Adviser at Head-Quarters with three Assistant Advisers.
The personnel of the Department consists of Accountants, Cashiers, and Field Paymasters.
The Accountants are in the Accounts Offices at the Base, which are manned by three Accounts Units, each with a personnel of 43 Accountants and Cashiers, with their servants, and 138 Writers.
Each “Base Accounts Unit” is organized to deal with the accounts of two Divisions, a Cavalry Division, and a Mounted Brigade. It is under a Chief Accountant, whose duties include dealing with Contracts, Store and Supply Accounts, the Accounts of the Troops, and Audit.
The Cashier Staff is usually at the Base, where the bills incurred by the various Services are paid, and any necessary issues of cash on imprest made.
The Field Paymasters are stationed at convenient places nearer the troops; they provide Commanding Officers with cash for paying the men, and pay bills incurred locally, if urgent.
At the Base is the Military Chest, holding the cash reserve of the Army. That it should be ample during the Campaign is of vital moment. Credit notes are a poor substitute for cash in an enemy’s, or even an ally’s, country. As von der Golz says, “a full exchequer may be worth an Army Corps, and a clever financier at the side of the Commander-in-Chief equal to a first-rate General.” Cash is required not mainly for the pay of the troops, but to purchase in the country what the Army needs, and to pay for the large amount of civilian labour which will be required on the L. of C. Cash is also needed to buy information, or reward inhabitants for services. The immense importance of having, without fail, ready money for these purposes—so essential for the operations of the Army—cannot be over-estimated.
11. The Records Branch
The Records Branch supplies, on mobilization, one Section of clerks for each Division, and for each Cavalry or Mounted Brigade, to carry on the clerical work at Head-Quarters of Commands in the field. Artillery and Engineers supply their own clerks for their Head-Quarters.
A Record Office is established at the Base, to carry on all office work in connection with the personnel from which it is desirable the units in the field should be entirely freed, such as the soldiers’ attestations and medical history sheets, and their accounts. From this office, too, are sent to England reports, returns, war diaries, and lists of casualties. It also conducts the clerical work in connection with invaliding.