ABSTRACT
From the moment of his translation to the Admiralty Churchill’s vision was inevitably concentrated upon his main task. It was his responsibility to prepare the Navy to meet the German challenge and to secure beyond a doubt Britain’s defences on the seas. Admiral Fisher had prepared the ground, ruthlessly cutting out obsolete vessels, obsolete men and obsolete ideas. It was his dream to build an invincible navy equipped with the largest ships and most powerful guns and he planned to begin the recruitment of officers from the lower deck. Lloyd George has borne ample testimony to the mysteries shrouding foreign affairs from all but the most senior members of the British Cabinet in the years before the First World War. Churchill had written to Bonar Law with dignity and restraint, asking to be judged by the true facts. He would wait long for such a consummation in such a quarter, and was without illusions.
