The question of the reeponaibility and credit for the orders
issued to the Fleet in the lest days Of July last year has now been cleared up. Hitherto the generally accepted view has been that Mr. Churchill issued the order to the ships to stand fast, instead of demobilizing as ordered, after the manceuvres, and so saved the situation. It, is now . authoritatively established that the order was given by Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg, then First Sea Lord,. in the absence of Mr. Churchill at Overstrand. The demobilization had been planned to take place, according to the customary practice, after the annual mobilization for manceuvres, by which the ships of the First Fleet disperse to their home ports, while those of the Second Fleet, or nucleus crew vessels, land their balance crews. On July 27th these operations were to have occurred simultaneously, but the orders referred to cancelled them both.
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