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Extract from a letter written to the journalist Archibald Hurd from First Sea Lord Sir John Fisher 28/11/1907.

Extract from a letter written to the journalist Archibald Hurd from First Sea Lord Sir John Fisher 28/11/1907.

Pages 2 and 3 of a letter sent to Hurd by Fisher which reports: "(We have had) some further reliable information that the first 4 German Dreadnoughts are now well started& making about the same progress but you must not quote this at present unless it reaches you from other sources. They expect to finish them all at end of 1910 by which time we shall have 7 dreadnoughts and 3 Invincibles actually at sea!" Fisher was subject to public criticisms of his reforms, most notably from Admiral Lord Charles Beresford. Beresford claimed that Fisher's reforms did not go far enough to get the country ready for war, and his scrapping of many cruisers and warships regarded as obsolete by Fisher. Hurd was a correspondent with the Daily Telegraph and a Contributor to the Naval and Military Record, and a confirmed supporter of Fisher.