An alternative treaty arrangement that allowed Australia to retain a capital ship is posed as an open counterfactual exercise. The questions concern the allowance needed, which ship Australia could keep, and how it would use that vessel. The premise is that Britain could not spare a capital ship for Australia while limited to 15 itself, so a larger total or different arrangement would be necessary. An Australian exception would raise further questions about a Canadian capital ship or an Indian cruiser squadron. The British programme envisaged 40-48 County-class cruisers, with roughly 18-23 intended for the Dominions. Those proposed numbers connect the exercise to the distribution of naval costs and forces within the empire; no final answer is supplied.
Notable Point · 1:27:14-1:29:06
Testing treaty arithmetic with an Australian capital ship
An Australian capital ship would require different treaty arithmetic and raise further questions about Canadian and Indian naval forces.