Selling 'the Scheme': The British periodical press and the discourse on naval reform, 1900--1910

The first decade of the twentieth century marks the genesis of the modern Royal Navy that fought, and won, two world wars. This period was the climax of two dynamic processes: a century of dramatic change in naval technology and the advent of the new mass print media, which facilitated an era of unprecedented public interest and involvement in naval affairs. The press acted as a national think tank for the navy.;The 1902 Selbome Scheme and 1904 Fisher reforms reoriented naval personnel, material and organization to modem conditions. Historians have provided very intricate and exhaustive analyses of the development of naval policy and thought at the governmental or Admiralty level, but less attention has been paid to the important intellectual discourse in the press.;This thesis will examine the elite, intellectual discussion which occurred in the periodical press from 1900 to 1910, in order to describe the detail and sophistication of the information available to the public, and the impact of public opinion on Admiralty policy.