The Board of Invention and Research, of which I was President, after much persistence obtained the loan of a small Laboratory at South Kensington, greatly aided by Professor Dalby, F.R.S., for research purposes as regards the Internal Combustion Engine; but its capabilities were quite inadequate. Then the President of the Council (Earl Curzon) was to undertake the whole question of Research on a great and worthy scale, and I got a most kind letter from him. It ended with the letter! In this connection I have had wonderful support from Sir Marcus Samuel, who staked his all on Oil and the Oil Engine. Where should we have been in this War but for this Prime Mover? I’ve no doubt he is an oil millionaire now, but that’s not the point. Oil is one of the things that won us the War. And when he was Lord Mayor of London he was about the only man who publicly supported me when it was extremely unfashionable to do so. * * * * * Oil is the very soul of future Sea Fighting. Hence my interest in it, and though not intending to work again, yet my consuming passion for oil and the oil engine made me accept the Chairmanship of a Royal Commission on Oil and the Oil Engine when Mr. Churchill and Mr. Asquith found me at Naples in May, 1912. I have come to the conclusion that about the best thing I ever did was the following exuberant outburst over Oil and the Oil Engine. I observe it was printed in November 1912, written “currente calamo,” and now on reading it over I would not alter a word. I am only aghast at the astounding stupidity of the British Shipbuilder and the British Engineer in being behind every country in the development of motor ships. OIL AND THE OIL ENGINE (1912). I.--With two similar Dreadnoughts oil gives 3 knots more speed--that is if ships are designed to burn oil only instead of oil and coal--_and speed is everything_. II.--The use of oil fuel increases the strength of the British Navy 33 per cent., because it can re-fuel at sea off the enemy’s Harbours. Coal necessitates about one-third of the Fleet being absent re-fuelling at a base (in case of war with Germany) some three or four hundred miles off!--_i.e._, some six or eight hundred miles unnecessary expenditure of fuel and wear and tear of machinery and men. III.--Oil for steam-raising reduces the present engine and boiler room personnel some 25 per cent., and for Internal Combustion Engines would perhaps reduce the personnel over 60 per cent. This powerfully affects both economy and discipline.