"The repairs and maintenance of the Fleet have been well looked after by Sir John Jellicoe," wrote the critic of _Engineering_, "who has realized throughout the importance of liberal financial provision to enable the prompt and proper execution of repairs. The total number of men employed (shipbuilding and repairs, etc.) in the home dockyards has considerably increased during his period of office. Sir John, having at one time been associated with the building of warships in private yards, has devoted much attention to improving and extending the resources of the dockyards for shipbuilding and repair work. A recent important innovation in dockyard and port equipment is the adoption of large floating-docks for Dreadnoughts and floating-cranes to serve them, a policy which recognizes _inter alia_ the importance of the quality of mobility in docks and cranes. The equipment of temporary bases in time of war becomes easy of arrangement when floating-docks and floating-cranes lie fully equipped and ready for use and transfer. Two such docks, capable of lifting 32,000 tons--one for Portsmouth and one for the Medway--are now under construction, whilst contracts for two large floating-cranes, capable of lifting 100 tons at a radius of 125 feet, and 150 tons at about 90 feet, will very shortly be placed. "Sir John Jellicoe has been a strong Controller and his severance from the Admiralty is a matter of personal regret, which is not by any means confined to the members of the Board and the heads of departments. No Controller has been more popular; none has commanded greater respect as an administrator." It has been stated that during this period Sir John Jellicoe would sometimes work for fifteen or sixteen hours a day, when business pressed. He never "fussed" or gave the impression of "rush," and he neither worried nor drove his subordinates. His words were few, but to the point. And he has never been known to make a request or give an order twice. It was during the period Jellicoe began to carry on the good work Fisher had started at the Admiralty that the Emperor of Germany wrote a remarkable letter to the late Lord Tweedmouth, First Lord in 1908. At the time it was declared by Tweedmouth to be confidential and purely personal, but the contents have at last become more or less public. This letter, in the light of latter-day events, is particularly interesting. It was quoted for the first time by _The Morning Post_, and it throws a strong light on the Kaiser's real character. One can imagine the First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Fisher--whom the German Naval Party feared so keenly--describing it in his frank fashion as an infernal piece of bluff.