I trust you are quite well and will believe me, Yours sincerely, ----. _Lord Fisher to a Friend._ _August 22nd, 1917._ MY BELOVED FRIEND, I am scanning the dark horizon for some faint glimmer of the end of the War. Not a sign of a glimmer! So far as the Germans are concerned, there is indisputable authority for stating that Germany is equal to a seven years’ war! Are we? So far, alas! we have had no Nelson, no Napoleon, no Pitt! The one only “substantial victory” of ours in the War (and, as Nelson wished, it was not a Victory--it was Annihilation!) was the destruction of Admiral von Spee’s Armada off the Falkland Islands.... And the above accomplished under the sole direction of a Septuagenarian First Sea Lord, who was thought mad for denuding the Grand Fleet of our fastest Battle Cruisers to send them 14,000 miles on a supposed wild goose chase.... And how I was execrated for inventing the Battle Cruisers! “Monstrous Cruisers,” they called them! To this day such asses of this kidney calumniate them, and their still more wonderful successors, the “Repulse,” “Renown,” “Furious,” “Glorious,” and “Courageous.” How would they have saved England without these Fast Battle Cruisers?... And yet, dear friend, what comes to the Author of the Scene? The words of Montaigne! “Qui de nous n’a sa ‘terre promise,’ Son jour d’extase, Et sa fin en exil?” Yours, etc., (Signed) FISHER. _Note._--Much talk of a recent _mot_ at a great dinner-table, where society’s hatred of Lord Fisher was freely canvassed, and his retirement (in May 1915) much applauded. “I did not know,” remarked a statesman, “that Mr. Pitt ever put Lord Nelson on the retired list.” THE DREADNOUGHT BATTLE CRUISER. The following imaginary dialogue I composed in 1904 to illustrate the text that “Cruisers without high speed and protection are absolutely useless”:-- “The ‘Venus,’ an Armoured Cruiser, is approaching her own Fleet at full speed! “Admiral signals to ‘Venus’: ‘What have you seen?’ “‘Venus’ replies: ‘Four funnels hull down.’ “Admiral: ‘Well, what was behind?’ “‘Venus’ replies: ‘Cannot say; she must have four knots more speed than I had, and would have caught me in three hours, so I had to close you at full speed.’ “Admiral’s logical reply: ‘You had better pay your ship off and turn over to something that is some good; you are simply a device for wasting 400 men!’” The deduction is: ARMOUR IS VISION.