Well! Lloyd George is the real man, and so far judging from his most intimate conversation with me, _all is well!_... A propos of all this I’ve been specially invited to meet four people of importance at a week-end meeting--_no others_. I was asked twice before--and again now repeated; but I think it best to abstain. I think you will approve of my not going. I have declined to go with W. C. in the Admiralty Yacht. * * * * * 1912. _May 19th._ NAPLES. I have a letter from W. C. this morning that he and the Prime Minister have decided to come direct here to Naples to spend a few days, and a telegram has just come saying they arrive on May 23rd.... I suppose the coming Supplementary Estimates and also types of new ships about which I am in deadly antagonism with every living soul at the Admiralty, and one of the consequences has been that a great Admiralty official has got the boot!!! So Winston is right when he writes to me this morning that in all vital points I have had my way! He adds: “The Future of the Navy rests in the hands of men in whom your confidence is as strong as mine ... and no change of Government would carry with it any change of policy in this respect.” * * * * * 1912. KILVERSTONE HALL, _June 30th._ THETFORD. My plot is working exactly as forecast. By and by you’ll say it’s the best thing I ever did. The Prime Minister and Winston would not listen at Naples to my urgent cry “Increase your margin!” They have got to recruit without stint and build 8 “Mastodons” instead of 4. Wait and see! The recruiting HAS begun. The 8 will follow. We want 8 We won’t wait. No other course but that now in progress would have done it. I don’t mind personal obloquy, but it’s a bit hard to undergo my friends’ doubts of me; but the clouds will roll by.... I’ve got all my “working bees” round me here of the Royal Commission [on Oil and the Internal Combustion engine]. We shall stagger humanity! 1912. _July 6th._ KILVERSTONE HALL.