[The three privately printed volumes entitled “Naval Necessities,” 1904, 1905, and 1906, contain papers written or collected by Sir John Fisher, as Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth and as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, bearing upon the Naval Reforms which he then introduced or contemplated. The following selections from these papers tell their own story.] _Sir John Fisher to Lord Selborne, First Lord of the Admiralty._ DEAR LORD SELBORNE, ... You remember you glanced through some manuscript in my office at Portsmouth the day you embarked in “Enchantress,” and I gathered that you saw much in them that commended itself to you. Well! having thus more or less got a favourable opinion from you, I elaborated that manuscript which you had read, and printed it with my confidential printer; ... then I gave it secretly to the five best brains in the Navy below the rank of Admiral to thresh out; and associated two other brains for the consideration of the types of future fighting vessels; then I selected out of those seven brains the one with the most facile pen and ... said to him: “Write a calm and dispassionate précis for me to give the First Lord.” You may be confident (as confident as I know you are) that the First Sea Lord won’t ever sell you! that these seven brains may be absolutely relied upon for secrecy. I have tested each of them for many years! These are the seven brains: Jackson, F.R.S., Jellicoe, C.B., Bacon, D.S.O., Madden, M.V.O., Wilfred Henderson (who has all the signs of the Zodiac after his name!), associated with Gard, M.V.O., Chief Constructor of Portsmouth Dockyard, and who splendidly kept the Mediterranean Fleet efficient for three years, and Gracie, the best Marine Engineer in the world! This is the “modus operandi” I suggest to you. If these proposals in their rough outline commend themselves to you and our colleagues on the Board, then let me have these seven, assisted by Mr. Boar (who is a mole in the Accountant-General’s Department--you know of him only by upheavals of facts and figures!), and secretly these eight will get out a detailed statement supported by facts and figures for consideration before we take a step further!... Please now just a few words of explanation at the possibly apparent (but in no ways real) slight put on those at the Admiralty who might be thought the right persons to conduct these detailed inquiries instead of the eight brains I’ve mentioned!