Minute by WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] on the re-draft of his memorandum of August 1913 on trade defence [see CHAR 13/26/39-50]. [Carbon copy].

Extract from the Times, giving an Admiralty announcement warning that German mines have been scattered in the open sea on the trade route between the United States and Liverpool via Northern Ireland; also making the whole of the North Sea a military area, and warning merchant shipping of the dangers. [Typescript copy].

Letter from Admiral Sir Reginald Custance to WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] on the defence of trade.

Letter from [WSC, First Lord of the Admiralty] to the Prime Minister [Herbert Asquith, later 1st Lord Oxford and Asquith] sending a memorandum [not present] on British trade protection in time of war. [Carbon].

Minute from [WSC, First Lord of the Admiralty] to the 1st Sea Lord [Prince Louis of Battenberg, later 1st Lord Milford Haven] on trade protection, particularly the policy of arming merchant steamers. [Carbon].

Letter from Admiral Sir Alfred Winsloe, [Admiral Commanding China Station] (HMS Minotaur, Hong Kong) to WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] with an account of his visit to the French colony at Saigon [later Vietnam], arrangements for joint British and French action against Germany in Far Eastern waters in case of war, pay levels and the problems of transferring officers from merchant shipping to the Navy.

Minute by WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] on the defence of trade. [Incomplete typescript, initialled by WSC].

Admiralty intercepted message, giving a German official communique declaring the waters around Great Britain and Ireland a war region, and warning that hostile merchant ships and possibly neutrals would be attacked.

Note from "G R G A" [Commodore George Gordon Allen] to WSC commenting on the despatches concerning Mediterranean convoy operations to Malta, suggesting the most important operation was "Pedestal" in August 1942. [initialled; annotated by WSC's literary assistant Denis Kelly].

Comments by [Commodore George Gordon] Allen on [the proofs of the London Gazette supplement of] "The Battle of Sirte [Libya]" [for the supplement see CHAR 20/241/218-227]. [initialled].

Page proofs for a supplement to the London Gazette entitled "The Battle of Sirte [Libya] of 22nd March, 1942", reprinting contemporary despatches and reports from Admiral Sir Henry Harwood, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Station (2 June), and Rear Admiral Philip Vian, Commanding Fifteenth Cruiser Squadron (31 March), with later Admiralty footnotes. [annotated by ?Kathleen Hill, WSC's secretary].

Letter from WSC to the First Lord [of the Admiralty, A V Alexander, later 1st Lord Alexander of Hillsborough] informing him that it is: "the duty of the naval authorities to carry out the approved policy of the transference of men from other shipbuilding and ship-repairing tasks to merchant ship repair work". [typescript copy].