ABSTRACT
For Archibald Hurd, naval correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, 'The critical phase in the Anglo-German struggle for sea supremacy opened in 1908, when Mr Reginald McKenna became First Lord of the Admiralty, with Fisher as First Sea Lord'. The 1909 naval estimates at the same time as the dramatic expansion in domestic welfare provision produced a crisis within the Cabinet and a crisis within Parliament. The relationship between Liberalism and navalism was felt most profoundly over the issue of the laws of war at sea. McKenna had been distracted throughout the International Naval Conference by the estimates. 'McKenna is very sore with his colleagues about the way he has been treated' and was suspicious of Cabinet leaks and collusion between the chancellor of the Exchequer and Beresford. On 22 June, McKenna and Pamela Margaret Jekyll attended the coronation at Westminster Abbey. On 12 May 1911, McKenna became the first minister of the crown to take to the air.
