Scope and Contents Minute from Rear-Admiral Alexander Bethell, Director of Naval Intelligence, to WSC stating that there was no real necessity for a wireless station in the Shetland Islands, as it would be the wartime base of the 7th Cruiser Squadron, which was equipped with wireless; also stating that a base would cost around 9,000 pounds and require a force of 25 men to defend it. Bethell adds that German influence was not very marked in the islands, and that very few German ships had visited there since...

Scope and Contents

Admiralty memorandum on movements of the German High Seas Fleet, July - November 1911. [Typescript].

Scope and Contents

Admiralty memorandum on the movements of the German High Seas Fleet during the Moroccan negotiations, September - November 1911 [over Agadir]. [unsigned manuscript].

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

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 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

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

Letter from Admiral of the Fleet 1st Lord Fisher [1st Sea Lord] to WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] on his meeting with an Italian officer, recently in Berlin [Germany], who reported that the Germans were planning a series of raids on the coast, similar to the raid on Scarborough [Yorkshire]. Fisher also comments on the escape of the German cruiser Dresden following the Battle of the Falkland Islands. [Hand-written, with typescript copy].

Scope and Contents Minute from WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty], to the Secretary [Sir (William) Graham Greene] and the Director of the Intelligence Division [Captain (William) Reginald Hall], on the searchlight on the roof of Sir Arthur Bignold's house overlooking a fleet anchorage. WSC asks for a report on Bignold, his guests, friends and servants, and rumours of aircraft activity in the area. [Carbon; Bignold had houses at Loch Rosque castle, Ross-shire, Scotland, Strathbran Lodge, Dingwall, Ross and...

Scope and Contents

Report by Hugh Miller, paymaster of HMS Arethusa, on information obtained from a German officer on the action off Heligoland [Germany]: sent on by Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt. [Printed for circulation to the Cabinet, Dec 1914].

Scope and Contents

Telegram from Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleets [Vice-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe], to Admiralty, on his suspicions of a German base in either the Hebrides or Skye [Inverness-shire, Scotland]: Jellicoe requests a thorough search, reporting that he had given orders that no telegrams detailing movements of ships be accepted.

Scope and Contents

Telegram from British Naval Attache (Petrograd), to Admiralty, reporting that the Russian Admiralty had acquired several German signal books and cyphers: he suggests that a British cruiser or destroyer be sent to Russia to collect copies; includes Admiralty responses. [Carbon].

Scope and Contents

Telegram from Captain MacIlwaine, fitting out ships at Harland and Wolff, Belfast [Northern Ireland] to Admiralty, reporting that Sir Otto Jaffe, a prominent German Jew, was a suspected spy. MacIlwaine alleges that Jaffe had made an exhaustive report to the German Government on Belfast, and that he had been seen spying on ships fitting out "from an unusual place of observation". [Carbon].

Scope and Contents

Telegram from Admiralty to the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet [Admiral Sir John Jellicoe], reporting intelligence from a very trustworthy source in Denmark, on indications of a sortie by the German Fleet, or a part of it, with the object of enabling a fleet of fast cruisers to get into the Atlantic. Initialled by Vice-Admiral Henry Oliver [Chief of Staff]. [Carbon].

Scope and Contents

Telegram from Admiralty to the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet [Admiral Sir John Jellicoe], on the internment of the German minelayer Berlin in Norway, and the possibility that the British fleet was to have been decoyed into a minefield laid by the Berlin. Initialled by WSC and Vice-Admiral Henry Oliver [Chief of Staff]. [Carbon].