According to the military classification, Bombay is a Second-class District, held by a Brigadier-General, who is not really a General Officer, but a full colonel with temporary rank. A First-class District is held by a Major-General, whose importance is further marked by the presence of an A.D.C. There is, however, so much ceremonial work peculiar to Bombay that the General often wished that he had been granted the services of such a young officer, as a way of saving his regular staff.
Transports
Gatacre held this command for more than three years—from January 1894 to July 1897—but for eight months in the summer of the second year, 1895, he was on active service in Chitral, and for the same period in 1896 he was officiating at Quetta. Owing to the difference in climate he thus served for five drill seasons in succession. Although these two short episodes will be dealt with separately, the fact that he did duty through the cold weather for three seasons in Bombay seems to justify also a study of the conditions peculiar to that command.
So far as the passenger traffic is concerned, Bombay is the port of India. It is the quickest route to all the provinces, even as far east as Calcutta. All the transports between England and India call at Bombay, and the vast majority of troops are there embarked and disembarked. In consideration of the work entailed in arranging the transport service, an extra Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General was allowed on the staff; practically this department of the staff office was the shipping agency for all the reliefs throughout India. Not only had the transhipping and railway arrangements to be made for every regiment on its arrival and departure, and for drafts of men from every branch of the service, but privilege passages had to be allotted to the innumerable officers and their families who, when going home on leave, hoped to avail themselves of the chance of a vacancy on a transport. The rule in allotting these passages was that the junior officer should take precedence, Government having apparently in mind that their scale of pay gave them the first title to consideration. At the same time, senior officers were often needed to take command of a ship full of details, and sometimes had to be searched for, Army nursing sisters, too, had special claims.
All these conflicting interests gave rise to almost as many private letters as there were official applications. Ladies and children would come and live in Bombay in the hope of securing a vacancy at the eleventh hour—a device which was often successful. There were numberless hard cases and jealousies over these passages, and many funny stories were told. It was whispered that if an applicant called in person on the General, her chances would be in direct proportion to her personal attractions. The amount of baggage allowed was also a source of infinite vexation. Once a nursing sister, who had recently married an army surgeon, asked to be allowed to send her effects under her maiden name, as the scale of baggage allowed in her professional capacity was slightly higher than that considered sufficient for a captain's wife.
During the loading and unloading of these transports an officer of the General's staff had to be continuously on duty to attend to any matter that might arise, and to check the freight, live and dead. This was a tedious and very irksome duty, and, considering the amount of work going on in the office during the winter months, the time thus spent could be ill spared. The General made a practice of calling in person on all transports immediately before their departure, at whatever hour it might be, and soon after their arrival. If a homeward-bound vessel was starting on a midnight tide, he would dine in his picturesque white mess-dress, and thus be ready to go and pay his official visit of farewell. The house was a long way from the Bunder, so that this duty involved a drive of more than a mile, and a run across the harbour in the Government launch, which was always at his disposal. In that intensely Oriental setting the thrill of living (as it were) in the exchange, and seeing the great ships that go down to the sea carrying their load of joyful anticipations, was irresistibly moving. Gatacre was thus on terms of personal friendship with all the captains, and used to ask them to his own house. As a Christmas recognition of such attentions, the captain of the Victoria sent up a specially selected sirloin of English beef one year on the morning of December 25. All who have tasted Indian beef will know that this was a rare delicacy.
The Navy
But transports were not the only vessels in Bombay Harbour. There were ships from the Royal Navy, ships from the foreign navies, and Peninsular and Oriental weekly mails, outward and homeward bound.
Between the navy and the army there was a strict etiquette regarding the exchange of visits. Writing from Bombay on November 3, 1909, General Swann tells us that—