[Lord Fisher found fruitful scope for his reforming energy in the Royal dockyards, and was very keen on making them efficient in working as well as economical in administration. The former tendency had been for ships to accumulate defects until they went into dock, when their stay was accordingly prolonged, and the longer they were in dockyard hands the more work was provided for the officials and workmen, so that there was a double incentive to spend money. In the following memorandum, Lord Fisher insists that this drain upon the limited funds available for the Navy must stop, and explains how the Admiralty meant to discriminate between vessels which it was essential to keep thoroughly efficient and others which were not worth any, or so much, money for repairs. Elsewhere in this volume Lord Fisher has shown how he got rid of 6,000 redundant dockyard workmen.] The head has got to wag the tail. The tail sometimes now wags the head. It is for the Admiralty, and the Admiralty alone, to decide _whether_, _how_, or _when_ the defects and repairs of the Fleet are to be taken in hand. [Illustration: SIR JOHN FISHER GOING ON BOARD THE ROYAL YACHT.] _The sole governing condition is what the Admiralty require for fighting purposes!_ It is desirable to put an extreme case to accentuate this:-- In the secrets of Admiralty Fighting Policy undesirable to make known to our enemies there are certain vessels never going to be used for actual fighting, but they serve an extremely useful purpose for subsidiary purposes. In such vessels there are defects and repairs of a particular character that might stand over till Doomsday! whilst there are other vessels where only defects affecting purely seagoing and actually direct fighting efficiency should be attended to. All this entirely depends on our probable enemy and may vary from time to time, and the sole judge can only be the Admiralty. But what it is feared now obtains is a blind rushing at all defects and repairs of all kinds and classes in all vessels. It is perfectly natural that the Commander-in-Chief and Admirals Superintendent may wish for the millennium of having all their vessels perfect--but this cannot be. What does it lead to? Extreme local pressure accentuated by Parliamentary action to enter more Dockyard workmen. What does this mean? It means in some recent cases that practically the upkeep of three cruisers is swallowed up in pay to Dockyard workmen! No--the Admiralty Policy is sound, consistent and irrefutable, which is _never_ to exceed the normal number of Dockyard workmen as now fixed by the recent Committee, and have such a great margin of Naval strength--such as we now possess--as admits of a leisurely and economical refit of ships without extravagant overtime or inefficient hustling of work. Therefore, what it comes to is this:--The Admiralty decide what vessels