Abstract
THE official memoranda published by the First Lord of the Admiralty on January 8 are of great interest, but that relating to the Naval War Staff is of much greater importance than the other two. Mr. Churchill discusses at considerable, if not unnecessary, length the distinctions which he believes to exist between “naval and military problems,” apparently considering it necessary to justify differences of organisation which will be found at the Admiralty and at the War Office when the new scheme has been developed. The First Lord is an able and forcible writer, who might be expected to state his case well, but it may be questioned if it would not have served his purpose better and have given a clearer understanding of the subject to the public if his memorandum on the Naval War Staff had been less diffuse. The fact is admitted by him that “during the course of years all or nearly all the elements of a War Staff at the Admiralty have been successively evolved in the working of everyday affairs.” The edifice is now to be completed and crowned by combining “these elements into an harmonious and effective organisation.” It is proposed “to invest the new body with a significance and influence. which it has not hitherto possessed, and to place it in its proper relation to existing powers.” This is “obviously both wise and necessary action; but it is scarcely to be described as such a radical change as some persons have asserted.
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Admiralty Reorganisation . Nature 88, 353 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/088353a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/088353a0