Why Britain retained battlecruisers after Jutland

The Royal Navy did not expect a future decisive battle simply to replay Jutland under the same conditions. At the Washington negotiations it could have surrendered its battlecruisers and retained more older battleships, but it chose not to do so. Jellicoe's support for battlecruisers can be read as a response to global economic warfare rather than enthusiasm for putting them in the battle line. Britain still needed ships able to destroy surface raiders too powerful for ordinary cruisers and, if required, to act as raiders themselves. The postwar lesson therefore changed the type's role instead of eliminating it.