It is interesting to record that I took part in a Conference of Allied naval officers in a pagoda at the end of the Great Wall of China in company with Admiral von Holtzendorff (the then German Flag Captain in China) after the capture of the Shan-hai-Kwan forts, in 1900, and that Admiral von Usedom succeeded me as Chief of the Staff to Admiral--afterwards Admiral of the Fleet--Sir Edward Seymour, when I was wounded during the international expedition for the relief of the Peking Legations. I had met both these officers on several subsequent occasions, as well as Admiral von Lans, who was in command of the _Iltis_ at the capture of the Taku forts by the Allies in the Boxer campaign. My knowledge of the German Navy was a strong reason, had no others existed, for making me desirous of doing all that was possible to increase our own gunnery and torpedo efficiency. The Germans possessed an excellent practice ground in Kiel Bay, with every appliance for carrying out gunnery exercises, and I felt sure that they had rendered it safe from any hostile attack, and that the German Fleet would be able to maintain and improve its efficiency as time progressed. We were not in so fortunate a position. There had been no recent opportunity for carrying out gunnery and torpedo exercises and practices; Scapa Flow had not been used as a base for such work in peace time, except for destroyers, and consequently no facilities existed there, although the proximity of Cromarty, which _had_ been a Fleet practice base, neutralised this disadvantage to a certain extent at a later period. But there was no protected area outside the harbour where practices could be carried out in safety, and the harbour itself was not at first secure against submarine attack. Much use, however, was made of the Moray Firth outside Cromarty later when submarine obstructions had been provided, and the Germans had obligingly laid a mine-field which protected the practice area from seaward. At the commencement of the War, then, it was necessary to depend on fleet resources for the provision of targets for gunnery practices, and the practices themselves were carried out under conditions which laid the ships open to submarine attack. This was most unsatisfactory, and the work suffered considerably as the result. The opportunity provided by constant sea work in the first months of the War was, however, utilised to carry out such gunnery practices as the conditions admitted. At first the custom was for the Fleet to use small targets which the ships carried with them. These were unsuitable; their small size rendered them frequently invisible at even moderate ranges in any sea, and I felt that the Fleet could not make progress under such conditions.