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Letter from WSC to Sir Alexander Cadogan [Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs] on replacing Sir Hugh Sinclair as Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service with Captain [Gerald] Muirhead-Gould RN; also the need to improve Admiralty intelligence services, with note to Private Secretary on distribution. [carbon and draft].

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Letter from Sir Alexander Cadogan [Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs] to Sir Archibald Carter [Permanent Secretary of Admiralty] asking for nominations from WSC and [Admiral of the Fleet Sir] Dudley Pound [1st Sea Lord] for Admiral [Sir Hugh] Sinclair's replacement as Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service.

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Letter from [1st] Lord Vansittart [Chief Diplomatic Adviser to Foreign Secretary] to WSC, enclosing copy of letter to Sir Kingsley Wood, Secretary of State for Air, containing information from a private source on German air and naval capabilities; with letter of thanks from WSC to Vansittart.

Scope and Contents First Lord of the Admiralty's printed minutes, November 1939.Includes texts of minutes from WSC (sometimes annotated with additional printed information) to: Deputy Chief of Naval Staff [Rear-Admiral Tom Phillips]; [Permanent] Secretary [Sir Archibald Carter]; the Sea Lords, particularly [3rd Sea Lord and] Controller [Rear-Admiral Bruce Fraser] and 1st Sea Lord [Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound]; various naval directors; Professor [F A] Lindemann [later 1st Lord Cherwell] and Major...

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Letter from WSC to the Prime Minister of Norway [Johan Nygaardsvold] asking him to reconsider a decision to withdraw Captain Rocher-Lund from Stockholm [Sweden] since he is very useful to the British Intelligence Services.

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Note from Desmond Morton [Personal Assistant to WSC] (War Office, Whitehall [London]) to WSC informing him that Lieutenant J M Langley is employed as a liaison officer between MI6 and the War Office and co-ordinates escapes by prisoners of war. Typescript signed with initials.

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Note from WSC to Desmond Morton [Personal Assistant to WSC] informing him that [Lieutenant J M Langley] has been expressing "exceedingly defeatist views". Typescript signed with initials.

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Note from Desmond Morton [Personal Assistant to WSC] to WSC concerning "undesirable" opinions expressed by J M Langley. He informs WSC that "C" [Major-General Sir Stewart Menzies, Head of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6] will not employ Langley abroad although Langley will continue with secret service work. Signed typescript annotated with a note by WSC "Why not give him a hint".

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Personal Minute from WSC to the Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs [1st Lord Lloyd of Dolobran] asking him how he intends to reply to the Duke of Windsor [earlier King Edward VIII and Edward Prince of Wales] about [Axel] Wenner-Gren [suspected of being pro-Nazi]. WSC encloses an extract from a letter sent to Wenner-Gren suggesting that he should meet a family in Nassau [Bahamas] who have a "sympathetic understanding for totalitarian ideas." Typescript.

Scope and Contents Minute from John Colville [Private Secretary to WSC] to [Christopher] Eastwood [Private Secretary to Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs] marked "most secret" reporting that [Harry] Hopkins [Special Adviser and Assistant to the President of the United States] had said that the cruise the Duke of Windsor [earlier King Edward VIII and Edward Prince of Wales] had taken with [Axel] Wenner-Gren had had a "deplorable effect". Hopkins noted that the United States consider Wenner-Gren a...

Scope and Contents Letter from Christopher Eastwood [Private Secretary to Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs] (Colonial Office [London]) to [John] Martin [Private Secretary to WSC] marked "secret" discussing possible courses of action to be taken about the association between the Duke of Windsor [earlier King Edward VIII and Edward Prince of Wales] and Axel] Wenner-Gren [a suspected pro-Nazi]. He explains that [1st] Lord Lloyd [of Dolobran], Secretary of State for the Colonies does not want to write to...

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Copy of a letter from John Martin [Private Secretary to WSC] to [Christopher] Eastwood [Private Secretary to Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs] informing him that WSC agrees that a United States agent should warn the Duke of Windsor [earlier King Edward VIII and Edward Prince of Wales] about the [pro-Nazi] activities of Axel Wenner-Gren. Carbon typescript signed with initials.

Scope and Contents Copy of a letter from [?Valentine] Vivian to K Robinson of the Colonial Office marked "secret" enclosing a mutilated extract from an interview given by the Duke of Windsor [earlier King Edward VIII and Edward Prince of Wales] to Liberty magazine. The interview "infuriates heads of news services" as the Duke condemns the "Lend Lease" agreement between Great Britain and the United States; states that the German people want [Adolf] Hitler in power; and comments on the failure of the first...

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Letters from Field-Marshal Sir John Dill [Chief of General Staff] to WSC explaining that Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Clarke was attempting to disseminate false information amongst German-controlled elements in Spain.

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Letter from Alan Hillgarth [Naval Attache at Madrid, Spain] to Charles Thompson [Personal Assistant to WSC] with photographs of Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Clarke dressed as a woman and after he was allowed to change.

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Telegram from WSC to Sir Stafford Cripps [British Ambassador to the Soviet Union] (Moscow), for personal delivery to Marshal Stalin, informing Stalin that Germany had been transferring Panzer Divisions from Romania to Southern Poland, but has stopped due to the Serbian revolt [information learned from Enigma decrypts].

Scope and Contents Minute from WSC (Admiralty) to Sir Edward Grey [Foreign Secretary], on a bundle of reports sent to him by Captain Vernon Kell of the War Office Secret Service [MO5 later MI5], showing that Britain was the subject of a minute and scientific study by the German military and naval authorities and that "no other nation in the world pays us such attention"; WSC asks Grey to show the reports to David Lloyd George [Chancellor of the Exchequer], concluding that Kell is "thoroughly trustworthy and...

Scope and Contents Letter from Sir Edward Grey [Foreign Secretary] (Foreign Office) to WSC on the Admiralty's wish to make a draft of 1,000 pounds on the Secret Service Fund; he adds that Rear-Admiral Alexander Bethell [Director of Naval Intelligence] has been told of the limited amount of the Fund and that further expenditure has to be agreed with the Foreign Office. Grey asks WSC not to commit them to any further expenditure until Bethell has arranged matters, and in a postscript, explains that he does not...

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Letter from WSC (Admiralty), to 1st Lord Haldane [Secretary of State for War], on evidence collected by Captain Vernon Kell, [of MO5, later MI5] of German espionage in Britain, suggesting that it should be submitted to the legal authorities, as he might be required to make public statements about it, and about the arming of merchant ships. [Hand-written copy, in pencil, initialled by WSC].

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Minute from WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] to the Director of the Intelligence Division, Admiralty [Captain (William) Reginald Hall], correcting a paper on the strengths of the British [? and German] fleets. [Carbon].

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Telegram from the French Naval Attache, (London) to the French Ministry of Marine, on reports that the Germans intended to make use of the Spanish coasts for sowing mines in the Strait of Gibraltar and along the south coast of Spain; the Attache suggests that a French ship should visit the Spanish ports to help Spanish destroyers keep a lookout. [Carbon].

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Telegram from Admiralty to the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet [Admiral Sir John Jellicoe], on the desirability of using Kirkwall [Orkney Islands, Scotland] rather than Lerwick [Shetland Islands] for the examination of neutral ships, as it facilitated negotiations with neutral powers. The telegram also details precautions for preventing neutral ships at Kirkwall from acquiring information. Initialled by Vice-Admiral Henry Oliver [Chief of Staff]. [Carbon].

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Telegram from the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet [Admiral Sir John Jellicoe] to Admiralty, suggesting that if any of the three battle cruisers [? in the South Atlantic] took part in an action, their name and class should be suppressed, so that the enemy would not be aware of the depletion of the Battle Cruiser Squadron in the North Sea. [Carbon].

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Letter from Admiral Lord Charles Beresford (Great Cumberland Place, London) to WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] on rumours that the Germans had taken a monastery close to Point de Galle in Ceylon [later Sri Lanka], disguising themselves as Buddhist priests. Includes covering note from Edward Heaton-Ellis [Assistant Director of Intelligence Division, Admiralty War Staff] stating that action had been taken.

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Letter from Friedrich von Bulow, representative of the Krupp Works, to WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty], on his arrest on a charge of espionage, asking to be released from his parole, and to be allowed to return to Germany.