A custodian of a relative's World War I papers worries that names, dates and fleet movements might still be secret. Clarke describes comparing the material with Jellicoe's published account and finding the same information already available there. In this example, the age and military subject of the papers had encouraged caution about information that was already public. The comparison with an existing publication resolves that particular concern without treating every military reference in a private collection as a secret.
Notable Point · 1:39:38-1:41:48
Checking private Grand Fleet papers against published history
An anecdote about World War I papers shows how a published naval history can establish that apparently sensitive information is already public.