Cruiser gun calibres without the Washington limit

What guns would the Royal Navy have selected for cruisers if the Washington Treaty had not imposed the eight-inch limit?

The preference given is for six-inch and 9.2-inch guns, based on logistics and the rates of fire attainable within different loading arrangements.

Six-inch and 9.2-inch guns are the proposed cruiser armaments without the treaty's eight-inch ceiling. Six inches is treated as the upper practical size for one person to lift and load a shell repeatedly. Above that size, increasing mechanical assistance changes the loading cycle. The comparison groups roughly seven-inch to 9.2-inch guns together in rate of fire, making the larger shell attractive within that bracket. Ten-inch through fourteen-inch weapons are placed in another broadly similar rate-of-fire group for the machinery under discussion. Within that group, fourteen inches would offer the heaviest shell without the same proportionate reduction in firing rate. The argument therefore connects calibre choice to handling arrangements and supporting machinery, as well as ammunition logistics.