British officials were particularly well placed to work around treaty limits because they had helped write the agreements. The method did not necessarily require open repudiation. It relied on reading the language closely, identifying how wide a loophole actually was, and designing within the resulting interpretation. The exchange cautions against treating treaty compliance as a simple yes-or-no category.
Notable Point · 1:25:32-1:27:58
British treaty compliance through carefully read loopholes
British designers could exploit the exact wording of naval treaties while maintaining a formal claim of compliance.