Why the Royal Navy needed a modern staff

The counterfactual asks what follows if the Royal Navy receives a formal staff when the Army does. Its clearest consequences concern the preparations for World War I, since wartime events become harder to predict. Parts of a naval staff already existed, but their inherited organization fitted the political demands of the early twentieth century poorly. The Navy had modernized gradually throughout the nineteenth century, adding functions to existing offices. It could make an effective public case through the press and campaigns such as We Want Eight, while still expecting government ministers to accept its authority.