The Papers of Reginald McKenna

Correspondents include: E Harold Spender [Daily News] asking to see McKenna; 2nd Lord Esher [earlier Reginald Brett] congratulating McKenna on his performance at the Committee of Imperial Defence (May 1909) but regretting that he had said anything about Admiral Reginald Bacon [Director of Naval Ordnance]; Rear-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe [Controller of the Navy, then Commander-in-Chief, Grand Fleet] on his wife launching a ship, on requirements for the naval estimates of 1910, armour plating costs and his fear that Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Wilson might replace Admiral of the Fleet 1st Lord Fisher as 1st Sea Lord, as Wilson had given many impractical orders, such as an attack on Heligoland [Germany] and sending Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty [1st Battle Cruiser Squadron] out over an area full of mines, as he did not realise the effect of enemy submarines (4); Trevelyan Napier, accepting the position of McKenna's Private Secretary but suggesting that someone more in touch with the Fleet might be better; Walter Runciman on a split between Sir Edward Grey [Foreign Secretary] and Herbert Asquith [Prime Minister, later 1st Lord Oxford and Asquith] on the Parliament Act, with Grey and others, including Runciman, considering plans for reform of the House of Lords inadequate and also wishing to include Home Rule in the debate, the chances of David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill resigning over the matter and also a forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle (1911), Runciman's intention of resigning if he was passed over and his warning to McKenna not to do anything indiscreet (3); Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Wilson [1st Sea Lord] on subjects including the disposal of HMS Bedford, the case of Simeon Exham [Superintending Engineer, Portsmouth and Rosyth Dockyards] being badly treated by the Admiralty and McKenna's failure to send enough ships to Australia and New Zealand (3); Ernest Pretyman [former Secretary to Admiralty] supporting Exham's case; Alfred Yarrow, President of Yarrow and Company Limited on orders for specialist shipbuilding; Richard Haldane [Secretary of State for War] on subjects including McKenna retaining his seat in the General Election and a book on compulsory service (3); Margaret Lloyd George; Georgiana, Lady Llangattock; David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the naval estimates; 1st Lord Gladstone [Governor-General of South Africa] commenting on coal output, McKenna's naval estimates and possible complications over Lourenco Marques [later Maputo, Mozambique]; 1st Lord Morley of Blackburn; Admiral Sir Edmund Poe [Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Station] asking Wilson for sick leave and commenting on station business; Herbert Asquith; Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, writing to Asquith to warn against giving Germany an opportunity to declare war as the Navy was not prepared for it; Agnes, Lady Jekyll on her concern about Pamela McKenna's health; Lewis Harcourt [Secretary of State for the Colonies] regretting that he could not appoint any of McKenna's Marine Officers to the governorship of St Helena; Sir [Arthur] Trevor Dawson [Director of Vickers Limited] putting forward his naval designer as a candidate for the post of Chief Constructor (2); Arnold Hills, the Thames Iron Works, Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, on armour plating (3); Thomas Crease [Naval Assistant to 1st Sea Lord, Admiral of the Fleet 1st Lord Fisher] on Fisher's resignation, explaining that he had persuaded Fisher to go to Scotland and to write to Asquith, asking for permission to leave, while expecting that Fisher would be called back in the future, and commenting on the departure of Winston Churchill from the Admiralty; Arthur Balfour; Admiral Sir Hedworth Lambton [Commander-in-Chief, China Station, later Sir Hedworth Meux] on a quarrel between himself and Admiral Reginald Bacon; Philip Wilson on the public reaction to McKenna's naval estimates.

Also includes: a draft letter from McKenna to Asquith changing the naval programme in the light of information about Austria building dreadnoughts; an incomplete letter from McKenna to Wilson on manning requirements and a letter on transporting servicemen to their polling stations in an election; letters from McKenna to Lloyd George on the naval estimates (4).