Letter from WSC to Sir Samuel Hoare [later Lord Templewood], Foreign Office, thanks for letter of 27 Aug on Imperial Defences, [CHAR 2/236]. Commenting on fleet dispositions in the Mediterranean, and stating that it would be quite wrong for isolated capital ships to be near Italian waters "I do hope the Admiralty will not despise the Italians and believe they will never dare to put to and face us. Mussolini's Italy may be quite different to that of the Great War". Also commenting on possible League of Nations trade sanctions about Italy, asking it Germany would be bound by them, and if not whether this would bring about an alliance between Germany and Italy, precipitating "what we most of all want to avoid". [Typescript, annotated "Hold back"].