[The notes and letters which follow were prepared by Lord Fisher in the course of his advocacy that the Navy Estimates and the Service itself should not be saddled with establishments not directly contributing to the fighting efficiency of the Fleet and its instant readiness for war. Such services, he maintained, not only reduced the sum of money available for the real work of the Navy, but constituted elements of weakness in the event of hostilities. The first document concerns the maintenance of small craft on foreign stations, on which a number of “gunboats” were kept to fulfil duties for departments other than the Admiralty. Lord Fisher differentiates between vessels which the Board should rightly supply, and others which had no naval value but were retained for duties connected with the Foreign or Colonial Offices--for which, if necessary, a proper fighting ship could be lent temporarily and then returned to her squadron. The second document deals with the Coastguard, which no longer served the purpose of a reserve for the Navy, and which had come to be mainly employed on duties connected with revenue, life-saving, etc., although paid for out of Navy Votes and employing Navy personnel. Thirdly, the Admiralty letter on Observatories shows that heavy expense was borne upon naval funds for duties no longer necessary to the Royal Navy.] In the Cawdor memorandum of last year (1905) will be found an exposition of the Admiralty policy in this matter, and attention may particularly be drawn to the following passage:-- “Gunboats, and all vessels of like class, have been gradually losing value except for definite purposes under special conditions. As far as this country is concerned, the very places consecrated as the sphere of gunboat activity are those remote from the covering aid of large ships. Strained relations may occur at the shortest notice; the false security of the period of drifting imperceptibly into actual hostilities is proverbial, and the nervous dread of taking any action that might even be construed into mere precautionary measures of defence, which experience has shown to be one of the peculiar symptoms of such a period, is apt to deprive these small vessels of their last remaining chance of security by not allowing them to fall back towards material support. The broadcast use of gunboats in peace time is a marked strategic weakness, and larger vessels can generally do the work equally well, in fact far better, for they really possess the strength necessary to uphold the prestige of the flag they fly, whereas the gunboat is merely an abstract symbol of the power of the nation, not a concrete embodiment of it.