An Admiralty Memorandum was issued on Monday evening announcing the
establishment of a Navy War Council. The purpose of this body is defined as "to organise and place on a permanent footing the arrangements made in previous years for the study of strategy and the consideration and working out of war plans," and its establishment is described as a further development of the policy which has actuated the Board of Admiralty for some time past. The new Council, which is purely advisory in its character and is not an organic part of the machine, will have the First Sea Lord for its President, with the Directors of Mobilisation and of Naval Intelligence and the Assistant-Secretary of the Admiralty as cx officio members. It is further provided that "other responsible advisers will also be called in to assist and advise as the President may consider desirable." In view of the predominance thus assigned to the First Sea Lord, the Times does well to contrast the functions of the new Navy War Council with the Naval War Staff contemplated by the Beresford Committee, and to quote the final sentence of the Report :—" The Committee have been impressed with the differences of opinion amongst officers of high rank and professional attainments regarding important principles of naval strategy and tactics, and they look forward with much confidence to the further development of a Naval War Staff, from which the naval members of the Board and flag officers and their staffs at sea may be expected to derive common benefit." The new Council is so far from furthering these aims that it is difficult to see why it should have been called into existence.
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