Sentiment vs Strategy: British Naval Policy, Imperial Defence, and the Development of Dominion Navies, 1911–14

Abstract

This article examines British naval policy towards imperial defence and the development of autonomous Dominion navies in 1911–14. It shows that the Admiralty's main goal under the leadership of Winston Churchill was to concentrate British and Dominion warships in European waters, and ideally in the North Sea, to meet the German threat. Churchill's approach to naval developments in the Dominions was also shaped by his desire to fulfil the Cabinet's policy of remaining strong in the Mediterranean Sea. He made some concessions to sentiment in the Dominions, but his attempts to create a coherent imperial policy for the naval defence of Britain and its empire were ultimately unsuccessful. By 1914 it was clear that the Dominions would not provide the additional warships Britain required for the Mediterranean, and on the eve of war the Admiralty was beginning to prepare an imperial naval strategy that more accurately reflected the Empire's capabilities.

Keywords:

• Royal Navy
• imperial defence
• Winston Churchill
• Canada
• Australia

Notes

1. A.J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow. 5 vols (Oxford, 1961–71).

2. A notable exception is N. Tracy (ed), The Collective Naval Defence of the Empire, 1900–1940 (Aldershot, 1997).

3. The key revisionist works are: N. Lambert, Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution (University of South Carolina Press, 1999) and J. Sumida, In Defence of Naval Supremacy (Boston, 1989).

4. J. Sumida, ‘Fisher's Naval Revolution’, Naval History, x, no. 4 (1996), 20–6.

5. Key post-revisionist works include: M.S. Seligmann, The Royal Navy and the German Threat 1901–1914: Admiralty Plans to Protect British Trade in a War against Germany (Oxford, 2012); C.M. Bell, ‘Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution Reconsidered: Winston Churchill at the Admiralty, 1911–14’, War in History, xviii, no. 3 (2011), 333–56; idem, ‘On Standards and Scholarship: A Response to Nicholas Lambert’, War in History, xx, no. 3 (2013); D. Gethin Morgan-Owen, ‘“History is a Record of Exploded Ideas”: Sir John Fisher and Home Defence, 1904–10’, International History Review, 2014 (forthcoming).

6. Lord Tweedsmouth, 1907 Colonial Conference, cited in S.J. McNaught, ‘The Rise of Proto-nationalism: Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Founding of the Naval Service of Canada, 1902–1910’, A Nation's Navy, ed. Michael L. Hadley, Rob Huebert, and Fred W. Crickard (Montreal, 1996), 105.

7. The best overview of British views on the development of imperial naval forces is Tracy, Collective Naval Defence.

8. N. Lambert, ‘Economy or Empire?: The Fleet Unit Concept and the Quest for Collective Security in the Pacific’ in K. Neilson and G. Kennedy (eds), Far Flung Lines (London, 1996), 55–83; see also N. Lambert, ‘Sir John Fisher, the Fleet Unit Concept, and the Creation of the Royal Australian Navy’ in D. Stevens and J. Reeve (eds), Southern Trident (Crows Nest, NSW, 2001), 214–24.

9. The origins and development of the fleet-unit concept are examined in Lambert, ‘Economy or Empire’; see also Collective Naval Defence, xvii–xviii, 101–14.

10. Fisher to Viscount Esher, 13 Sep. 1909, in Fear God and Dread Nought, ed. Arthur J. Marder. 3 vols (London, 1952–9), II:266.

11. Summary of results of meetings of the Inter-departmental Conference on Status of Dominion Ships of War, 19 Aug. 1909, Collective Naval Defence, 110–11.

12. Churchill cabinet memo, ‘Naval Expenditure’, 15 July 1910, CAB 37/103/32; Lewis Harcourt cabinet diary, 22 Feb. 1911, [Oxford, Bodleian Library,] Harcourt Papers, Harcourt uncat. 4004A.

13. Churchill to Harcourt, 29 Jan. 1912, [Cambridge, Churchill College Archives Centre], Churchill Papers, CHAR 13/8; Winston S. Churchill, ed. Randolph S. Churchill (London, 1969), vol. II, companion book 3 (hereafter cited as WSC, II/3), 1507.

14. Ibid.

15. Churchill to Asquith, 14 April 1912, [Admiralty records, The National Archives (TNA), Kew] ADM 116/3485; WSC, II/3:1538.

16. Ibid.

17. CID 102-C, Admiralty memo for the CID, April 1913, [Cabinet office records, TNA] CAB 5/3; see also WSC, II/3:1511–14.

18. Ibid.

19. Speech of 15 May 1912, Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, ed. Robert Rhodes James. 8 vols (New York, 1974) (hereafter cited as Complete Speeches), II:1962–5.

20. Speech of 18 March 1912, House of Commons, Complete Speeches, II:1929; see also Churchill's minute to the Chief of the Admiralty War Staff, 1 Feb. 1912, ADM 116/3099; and the Admiralty memo (undated, but early 1912) in the [Oxford, Bodleian Library] Henry Asquith Papers, Asq 24.

21. Churchill to Viscount Haldane, 6 May 1912, WSC, II/3:1549.

22. Fisher to Churchill, 20 June 1912, CHAR 13/43.

23. Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, I:287–98; P.G. Halpern, The Mediterranean Naval Situation 1908–1914 (Cambridge, MA, 1971), 20–46; Bell, ‘Fisher's Naval Revolution Reconsidered’; idem, ‘On Standards and Scholarship’.

24. Lambert, Fisher's Naval Revolution.

25. WSC cabinet memorandum, 15 June 1912, CAB 37/11/76; WSC, II/3:1564–9.

26. CID 117th mtg, 4 July 1912, CAB 2/2; see also Asquith to King George V, 5 July 1912, CAB 41/33/56.

27. Bell, ‘On Standards and Scholarship’, 389–91.

28. Churchill memo (not circulated), 6 July 1912, CAB 37/111/89; WSC, II/3:1588-91; CID 118, 11 July 1912, CAB 2/2.

29. Bell, ‘On Standards and Scholarship’.

30. CID 118^th mtg, 11 July 1912.

31. Grant-Duff diary, 18 July 1912, photocopies held at Churchill College Archives Centre, Cambridge.

32. The evolution of Borden's views is outlined in M. Thornton, Churchill, Borden and Anglo-Canadian Naval Relations, 1911–14 (Basingstoke, 2013), ch. 4.

33. Borden to Churchill, 28 Aug. 1912, [Ottawa, National Archives of Canada,] Borden Papers, microfilm reel C4349, ff. 67313-6; WSC, II/3:1641–2.

34. Churchill to Borden, 29 Aug. 1912, Borden Papers, ff. 67319–20.

35. Churchill to Harcourt, 13 Sep. 1912, Harcourt Papers, HAR 443.

36. Secret Admiralty memo for the Canadian government, 20 Sep. 1912, CAB 37/112/105; G.N. Tucker, The Naval Service of Canada (2 vols, Ottawa, 1952), II:406; Thornton, Churchill, Borden and Anglo-Canadian Naval Relations, 137–49.

37. Churchill to Borden (not sent), c. 14 Oct. 1912, ADM 116/3485; Collective Naval Defence, 166–8.

38. Churchill to Borden, 4 Nov. 1912, Borden Papers, ff. 57400–1; Collective Naval Defence, 174.

39. Asquith to Harcourt, 15 Sep. 1912, Harcourt Papers, HAR 421.

40. A good overview is provided by Thornton, Churchill, Borden and Anglo-Canadian Naval Relations, chs 6–8.

41. Speech of 31 March 1913, House of Commons, Complete Speeches, II:2108; see also Churchill's note on this speech, WSC, II/3:1807.

42. Borden to Churchill, 2 Nov. 1911, CAB 37/113/132.

43. Churchill to Battenberg and Jackson, 17 Jan. 1913, Collective Naval Defence, 183–4.

44. Churchill to Borden, 19 March 1913, WSC, II/3:1804–5.

45. Borden to Churchill, 23 March 1913, Borden Papers, f. 67648; WSC, II/3:1805–6; Churchill speech of 26 March 1913, House of Commons, Complete Speeches, II:2075.

46. Churchill cabinet memo, ‘The Three Canadian Ships’, 3 June 1913, CAB 37/113/128; WSC, II/3:1808–10.

47. Churchill to Asquith, 18 Dec. 1913, WSC, II/3:1834; see also Churchill to Sir Edward Grey, 25 Dec. 1913, WSC, II/3:1836–8.

48. Churchill to Borden, 19 Dec. 1913, Borden Papers, ff. 67896–7.

49. Borden to Churchill, 31 Dec. 1913, Borden Papers, ff. 67914–15.

50. Churchill cabinet memo, 10 Jan. 1914, CAB 37/117/93; Policy and Operations in the Mediterranean, 1912–14, ed. E.W.R. Lumby (Navy Records Society, 1970), 117–20.

51. Churchill cabinet memo, 6 Feb. 1914, CAB 37/119/25; Harcourt cabinet diary, 11 Feb. 1914.

52. Churchill speech of 17 March 1914, House of Commons, Complete Speeches, III:2256–7; Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, I:325–7.

53. Churchill cabinet memo, ‘Italian and Austrian Building Programmes’, 26 April 1914, CAB 37/119/57.

54. Bell, “Naval Revolution Reconsidered’.

55. Churchill to Borden, 6 March 1914, Borden Papers, 68016; Tucker, I:204.

56. W. Johnston, W.G.P. Rawling, R.H. Gimblett, and J. MacFarlane, The Seabound Coast: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Navy, 1867–1939 (Toronto, 2010).

57. Admiralty memo, 5 May 1914: Borden Papers, 68033–42; ADM 1/8369/47.

58. Borden to Churchill, 10 July 1914, Harcourt Papers, HAR 462.

59. Churchill to Harcourt, 13 July 1914, Harcourt Papers, HAR 462; CAB 1/34; The Submarine Service, 1900 1918, ed. Nicholas Lambert (Aldershot, 2001), 258.

60. Johnston, et al., The Seabound Coast, 210.

61. Draft letter, Greene to Colonial Office, Jan. 1913, Collective Naval Defence, 180–2.

62. King-Hall to Churchill, 22 Oct. 1912, and Churchill minute of 25 Nov. 1912, ADM 116/1270; Collective Naval Defence, 172–3; N. Meaney, The Search for Security in the Pacific (Sydney, 1976), 233–5.

63. Churchill to King-Hall, 7 Nov. 1912, ADM 116/1270; Meaney, Security, 235.

64. CID 122, 6 Feb. 1913, CAB 2/3. For Allen's views, see I. McGibbon, Blue Water Rationale (Wellington, 1981), 1417.

65. Churchill to Allen, 14 Feb. 1913, Collective Naval Defence, 186–9.

66. Ibid.

67. Allen to Churchill, 18 Mar. 1913, Collective Naval Defence, 190–3.

68. Grant-Duff diary, 21 April 1913.

69. CID 102-C: Admiralty memo for the CID, April 1913, CAB 5/3; WSC, II/3:1511–14.

70. CID 123, 11 April 1913, CAB 2/3.

71. Grant-Duff diary, 21 April 1913.

72. Allen to Churchill, 27 June 1913, Collective Naval Defence, 222; McGibbon, Blue Water Rationale, 15–16.

73. Churchill to Battenberg and Jackson, 31 July 1913, WSC, II/3:1759.

74. Churchill to Allen, 25 Aug. 1913, WSC, II/3:1756-8.

75. Lord Liverpool to Colonial Secretary, 24 Sep. 1913, and minute by Oswyn Murray, 25 Sep. 1913, Collective Naval Defence, 222–3.

76. D. Gordon, ‘The Admiralty and Dominion Navies, 1902–1914’, Journal of Modern History, lxxi, no. 4 (1961), 419; McGibbon, Blue Water Rationale, 16.

77. P. Overlack, ‘“A Vigorous Offensive”: Core Aspects of Australian Maritime Defence Concerns before 1914’ in Southern Trident, 140–59.

78. Harcourt to Governor General, Australia, 17 Oct. 1913, ADM 116/3485; Meaney, Security, 244-6.

79. Churchill to Sir W. Graham Greene, 14 Oct. 1913, ADM 1/8375/108; WSC II/3:1789

80. Meaney, Security, 238–49; Gordon, ‘Admiralty and Dominion Navies’, 419–20; Churchill minute, 21 April 1914, ADM 1/8375/108.

81. Speech of 17 March 1914, Complete Speeches, III:2259–60.

82. Churchill to Borden, 6 March 1914, Borden Papers, f. 68016; Overlack, ‘A Vigorous Offensive’.

83. D. Gordon, The Dominion Partnership in Imperial Defence, 1870–1914 (Baltimore, 1965), 290–4.

84. Given Churchill's belief that the desire for autonomous Dominion navies was motivated primarily by ‘sentiment’, it is interesting to note that one Canadian MP, William Manley German, was similarly dismissive of Borden's desire to contribute to the upkeep of the Royal Navy. This policy, he asserted, ‘is simply, and solely and only sentimental – nothing else but pure sentiment’. Thornton, Churchill, Borden and Anglo-Canadian Naval Relations, 87.

85. C.M. Bell, Churchill and Sea Power (Oxford, 2012), 47–8; S.T. Grimes, Strategy and War Planning in the British Navy, 1887–1918 (Woodbridge, 2012).

86. Lambert, ‘Economy or Empire’, 75.

87. The remainder of this paragraph is based on documents in the Admiralty folder O.D. 132/1914, in ADM 1/8383/179. The reasons why the battle-cruisers were being redistributed are outlined in D. Morgan-Owen, ‘An “Intermediate” Blockade? British North Sea Strategy, 1912–1914’, War in History (forthcoming).

88. Lambert, ‘Strategic Command and Control for Maneuver Warfare: Creation of the Royal Navy's “War Room” System, 1905–1915’.

89. Sumida, ‘Geography, Technology, and British Naval Strategy in the Dreadnought Era,’ Naval War College Review, xlix (2006), 97.