INDIAN NAVAL UNIT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22974, 28 February 1938, Page 10

INDIAN NAVAL UNIT

The progress of India as a cooperating and responsible unit of the British Empire is shown by the new responsibilities in naval defence that are being undertaken. The cash contribution paid since 1869 in return for protection by ships of the Royal Navy is to be discontinued, India is to maintain a sea-going force of not less than six modern escort vessels, and is to undertake the defence of Indian ports. Thus a branch of the defence services which is actually senior to all others gains a new status. The Royal Indian Marine, now being superseded, is the direct descendant of a naval unit founded by the East India Company in its earliest days. It has borne different names, and its functions have varied, but it has a long record of combatant service to its credit. At the outbreak of war in 1914 the force consisted of six armed transports with British officers and Indian crews. The vessels did much patrol work in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and co-operated in the campaign against Turkey in Mesopotamia, taking charge of inland water transport. The change in form and status has been in preparation for some time. It was decided in 1926 that the Royal Indian Marine should. be reorganised as a fully combatant force. In 1934 the Indian Navy (Discipline) Act was passed by the Indian Parliament. It provided that discipline should be regulated, like that of the Dominion navies, by the British Naval Discipline Act, suitably modified. Arrangements have been in train for some time to give a number of Indians the opportunity to qualify, as commissioned officers. Altogether the new naval unit is being so shaped that the Indian people can regard it as wholly their own.