Admiralty must have sole responsibility that all our Naval Arsenals are kept open for egress and ingress of our Fleet in war. Local defences should, therefore, apparently be under the Naval Commander-in-Chief. But all these arrangements for any such transfer of responsibility from War Office to Admiralty must be so planned as to obviate all possibility of Fleet men being used for shore work in war, _and there must be no risk of lessening the sea experience of the officers and men of the Fleet_; hence it will be imperative that there should be an entire transference of the whole of the Garrison Artillery from Army to Navy, as well as the responsibility for all ordnance. All this involves so immense an addition to the responsibilities of the Admiralty, apart from the one chief function of the Navy of seeking out and fighting the enemy’s fleets, that we have to hesitate; but we can’t let matters go on as at present. NOTES BY SIR JOHN FISHER ON NEW PROPOSALS. _Organisation for War._ “_If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?_” (St. Paul, I Corinthians, xiv. 8.) The object of the following remarks is to make clear what has now to be done to organise and prepare for war. What are the two great essentials? _I._ _The Sufficiency of Strength and the Fighting Efficiency of the Fleet._ _II._ _Absolute Instant Readiness for War._ To get these two essentials an immense deal is involved! It is believed they can both be got with a great reduction in the Navy Estimates! This reduction, combined with an undeniable increase in the fighting efficiency of the Navy, involves great changes and depends absolutely on one condition:-- _The Scheme herein shadowed forth must be adopted as a whole!_ Simply because all portions of it are absolutely essential--and it is all so interlaced that any tampering will be fatal! The country will acclaim it! the income-tax payer will worship it! the Navy will growl at it! (they always do growl at first!) _But we shall be Thirty per cent. more fit to fight and we shall be ready for instant war!_ and in time when we get rid of our redundancies in useless ships and unnecessary men it will probably be 30 per cent. cheaper! The outline of the various proposals will first be given. _No one single point must be taken as more important than another. Each is part of a whole_; As St. Paul well observes in the xii. Chapter of the I Corinthians:-- “_The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, are necessary._” So is it of this scheme! All its parts are essential for the perfection we must have if England is to remain the “Mistress of the Seas”!