Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE WORLD CRISIS
PREFACE
From October 25, 1911, to May 28, 1915, I was, in thewords of the Royal Letters Patent and Orders in Council,“responsible to Crown and Parliament for all the business ofthe Admiralty.” This period comprised the final stage in thepreparation against a war with Germany; the mobilisation andconcentration of the Fleet before the outbreak; the organisationof the Blockade; the gathering in 1914 of the Imperialforces from all over the world; the clearance from the oceansof all the German cruisers and commerce destroyers; the reinforcementof the Fleet by new construction in 1914 and 1915;the frustration and defeat of the first German submarine attackupon merchant shipping in 1915; and the initiation of theenterprise against the Dardanelles. It was marked beforethe war by a complete revision of British naval war plans;by the building of a fast division of battleships armed with15–inch guns and driven by oil fuel; by the proposals, rejectedby Germany, for a naval holiday; and by the largest suppliestill then ever voted by Parliament for the British Fleet. Itwas distinguished during the war for the victories of theHeligoland Bight, of the Falkland Islands and the DoggerBank; and for the attempt to succour Antwerp. It was memorablefor the disaster to the three cruisers off the DutchCoast; the loss of Admiral Cradock’s squadron at Coronel;and the failure of the Navy to force the Dardanelles.
Many accounts of these matters have been published bothhere and abroad. Most of the principal actors have unfoldedtheir story. Lord Fisher, Lord Jellicoe, Lord French, LordKitchener’s biographer, Lord Haig’s Staff, and many othersviof less importance, have with the utmost fullness and freedomgiven their account of these and other war-time eventsand of the controversies arising out of them. The Germanaccounts are numerous and authoritative. Admirals vonTirpitz and Scheer have told their tales. Sir Julian Corbett,the Official Historian, has in a thousand pages recorded theconduct of the naval war during the whole of my administration.Eight years have passed since I quitted the Admiralty.
In all these circumstances I feel it both my right and myduty to set forth the manner in which I endeavoured to dischargemy share in these hazardous responsibilities. In doingso I have adhered to certain strict rules. I have made noimportant statement of fact relating to naval operations orAdmiralty business, on