We are both in the same boat! What a time we’ve been colleagues, old boy! However, we did you in the eye over the Battle Cruisers and I know you’ve said you’ll never forgive me for it when bang went the “Blucher” and von Spee and all his host! Cheer up, old chap! Say “Resurgam”! You’re the one German sailor who understands War! Kill your enemy without being killed yourself. _I don’t blame you for the submarine business._ I’d have done the same myself, only our idiots in England wouldn’t believe it when I told ’em! Well! So long! Yours till hell freezes, FISHER. 29/3/16. I say! Are you sure if you had tripped out with your whole High Sea Fleet before the Russian ice thawed and brought over those half-a-million soldiers from Hamburg to frighten our old women that you could have got back un-Jellicoed? R.S.V.P. [5] “A Naval Lieutenant, 1914–1918,” by Etienne, 1919, pp. 48 _et seq._ [6] _Note._--These are the names of the three first great Battle Cruisers of the Dreadnought type. [7] On January 2, 1915, Russia asked for a demonstration against the Turks in order to relieve the pressure they were putting on the Russian forces in the Caucasus. Next day the War Office cabled a promise, through the Foreign Office, that this should be done. Before he sent the cable Lord Kitchener wrote to Mr. Churchill: “The only place that a demonstration might have some effect in stopping reinforcements going East would be the Dardanelles.” [8] “The dramatic scene which followed may one day furnish material for the greatest historical picture of the war. Lord Fisher sat and listened to the men who knew nothing about it and heard one after another pass opinion in favour of a venture to which he was opposed. He rose abruptly from the table and made as if to leave the room. “The tall figure of Lord Kitchener rose and followed him. The two stood by the window for some time in conversation and then both took their seats again. In Lord Fisher’s own words: ‘I reluctantly gave in to Lord Kitchener and resumed my seat.’ “Mr. Asquith saw that drama enacted, and Mr. Asquith knew that it arose out of Lord Fisher’s opposition to the scheme under discussion. But he allowed his colleagues on the Council to reach their conclusions without drawing from the expert his opinion for their guidance. The monstrous decision was therefore taken without it. But they all knew it--such a scene could not occur without everyone knowing the cause.” [9] It must be emphasised here, as well as in regard to Lord Kitchener’s statement to the War Council dated May 14th, 1915, that Lord Fisher considered that it would be both improper and unseemly for him to enter into an altercation either at the War Council or elsewhere with his chief Mr. Churchill, the First Lord. Silence or resignation was the right course.