Scope and Contents

Admiralty memorandum on German naval construction, particularly the new Navy Law, allowing for three capital ships, 15,000 men and 13,000,000 pounds spending. [Typescript, with ms annotations].

Scope and Contents

Minute from WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] to the Director of the Intelligence Division, Admiralty [Captain (William) Reginald Hall], asking for a comparison of expenditure on the first instalments of the British and German 1914-15 naval programmes. [Carbon].

Scope and Contents

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].

Scope and Contents Letter from Rear-Admiral David Beatty [Commander, 1st Battle Cruiser Squadron], on the situation in the North Sea and defences for the naval bases, suggesting that Rear- Admiral John de Robeck [Admiral of Patrols] should be put in charge of countering the submarine and mine menace, with more disciplined forces; he also suggests that if the Scapa Flow [Orkney, Scotland] anchorage were to be used again, steps should be taken to deal with the spies there, with the introduction of martial law....

Scope and Contents Minute from WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty], to the Secretary, Admiralty [Sir (William) Graham Greene], the 1st Sea Lord [Prince Louis of Battenberg, later 1st Lord Milford Haven], the Chief of Staff [Sir Henry Jackson] and the Director of the Intelligence Division [Captain (William) Reginald Hall], on the likelihood that German land pressure on the Netherlands would be irresistible in a war, and that the country would be "compelled to go with Germany openly or covertly". WSC states that...

Scope and Contents

Letter from Admiral Sir Berkeley Milne [Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean], (HMS Inflexible, Mediterranean Station), to WSC, enclosing an extract from a report by one of his captains, on a conversation with a German naval captain on a possible naval agreement between Germany and Austria on combined action against Russia.

Scope and Contents Minute from WSC [(Admiralty)], to the 1st Sea Lord [Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman], on training of Greek naval officers in Britain. WSC states that Rear-Admiral Mark Kerr [Vice-Admiral Commanding the Greek Navy] should be warned that the instruction and assistance being given to the Greek Navy was not intended to place them on the same level of naval science as Britain, and that the refinements of British gunnery, torpedo and submarine courses should not be disclosed, as information imparted...

Scope and Contents Minute from WSC [(Admiralty)], to the 1st Sea Lord, [Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman], on training of Greek naval officers in Britain: stating that Rear-Admiral Mark Kerr [Vice- Admiral Commanding the Greek Navy] should be warned that the instruction and assistance being given to the Greek Navy was not intended to place them on the same level of naval science as Britain, and that the refinements of British gunnery, torpedo and submarine courses should not be disclosed, as information imparted...

Scope and Contents Letter from Admiral of the Fleet 1st Lord Fisher to WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] offering congratulations on his "splendid memorandum", which was "Napoleonic in its audacity and Cromwellian in its thoroughness". Fisher advises WSC not to spend money on major repairs to ships, as they went out of date so quickly, but to build new; he states that he once told the German Naval Attache that he could arrange for him to steal plans for ships more than a year old, and alleges that the Attache...

Scope and Contents

Minute by WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty], to an unknown correspondent, enclosing a memorandum by the Chief of Staff, Admiralty [? Sir Henry Jackson], on the importance of developing the Territorial Forces in the Orkney and Shetland Isles [Scotland], to counter German influence and protect a naval wireless station on the Shetlands. WSC requests that the memorandum be shown to General Sir John French [Chief of Imperial General Staff, later 1st Lord Ypres]. [Carbon].

Scope and Contents

Minute from WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] to the Director of the Intelligence Division, Admiralty [Rear-Admiral Alexander Bethell], asking for comment on a letter from "Captain" Tupper, one of the most violent and competent of the strike leaders in the ports in 1912, who had written to WSC about espionage in the ports. WSC asks Bethell to meet Tupper and not to hand him over to Commander Mansfield Cumming [of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6]. [Carbon].

Scope and Contents

Minute from Rear-Admiral Alexander Bethell, Director of Naval Intelligence, to WSC, on the naval construction programme, 1912-1919, necessary to maintain Britain's 60 per cent superiority over the German navy. [Carbon].

Scope and Contents Letter from Admiral of the Fleet 1st Lord Fisher to WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] offering congratulations on his "splendid memorandum", which was "Napoleonic in its audacity and Cromwellian in its thoroughness". Fisher advises WSC not to spend money on major repairs to ships, as they went out of date so quickly, but to build new; he states that he once told the German Naval Attache that he could arrange for him to steal plans for ships more than a year old, and alleges that the Attache...

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...

Scope and Contents

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].

Scope and Contents

Letter from Vice-Admiral Lewis Bayly [Commander, 3rd Battle Squadron] (68 Ebury Street, [London]) to WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] on German intelligence in Britain.

Scope and Contents

Note from Commander Charles Thompson [Personal Assistant to WSC] to CSC, on gossip in Westerham [Kent] about a proposed visit to Chartwell by WSC, undertaking to tell the Military Authorities to ensure that the Chartwell Guard were warned not to gossip, pointing out that the information must have come from the staff at Chartwell, and that the staff should not mention such visits, even to the Guard; also on an extractor for the kitchen at Chartwell.

Scope and Contents

Note from CSC to Commander Charles Thompson [Personal Assistant to WSC], stating that the town of Westerham [Kent] was "seething" with the news that WSC would be spending the weekend at Chartwell, and that there was considerable disappointment when only she arrived; asking him to ensure that the Company Commander instructed his men not to discuss any proposed visit in the public houses and canteen in Westerham [initialled by CSC].

Scope and Contents

Letter from WSC to Sir Ernley Blackwell, [Legal Assistant Under-Secretary of State, Home Office], on the cancellation of his United States lecture tour, because of the possibility of a General Election, [and the death threat from the Ghadr Indian Revolutionary Party], suggesting that the Home Office keep a close watch on the young Indians in London, as they would certainly be in a bad mood when the Round Table Conference reached its inevitable breakdown. [Carbon].

Scope and Contents

Letter from Sir Ernley Blackwell [Legal Assistant Under- Secretary of State], Home Office, to WSC, with notification that the "Ghada" [Ghadr] Indian Revolutionary Party were making plans for an attempt on WSC's life during his autumn tour of the United States, and asking for details of his movements.

Scope and Contents

Memorandum by the [? Indian Police] sent to Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Special Branch, Metropolitan Police, on the Ghadr Indian revolutionary party, active in California, which had threatened to kill WSC during his lecture tour of the United States. [Typescript].

Scope and Contents Minute from Desmond Morton [Prime Minister's Personal Assistant] to WSC reporting on a broadcast from Paris [France] in which Randolph Churchill might have been involved. He reports that he has learnt from "Most Secret sources" that the Axis Secret Service in Spain had reported an "alleged conversation" between a Lt-Col Churchill and a correspondent for an Italian newspaper, the "Popolo d'Italia". Morton reports that Lt-Col Churchill (a different person from Randolph Churchill) denies any...

Scope and Contents Prime Minister's printed personal minutes, July 1943.Includes texts of minutes from WSC (annotated with additional printed information) to: General Sir Hastings Ismay [Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defence]; the Chiefs of Staff; senior civil servants, including Sir Edward Bridges [Secretary to the War Cabinet]; members of the Cabinet and other government ministers; "C" [Major General Sir Stewart Menzies, Head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service].Subjects covered by the minutes...

Scope and Contents Prime Minister's printed personal minutes, April 1944.Includes texts of minutes from WSC (annotated with additional printed information) to: members of the Cabinet and other government ministers, particularly Foreign Secretary [Anthony Eden, later 1st Lord Avon]; the Chiefs of Staff; General Sir Hastings Ismay [Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defence]; General Sir Bernard Montgomery [General Officer Commanding the Eighth Army]; Director of Military Intelligence [Major-General Francis...