Seventy cruisers and treaty bargaining

If Britain wrote a legal requirement for 70 Royal Navy cruisers before the Washington system, how would that affect the naval treaties?

Washington would matter little for cruiser numbers. London-style bargaining would probably have to accommodate the 70-cruiser floor or force a new Act of Parliament.

A legal requirement to keep 70 Royal Navy cruisers would have limited effect on the Washington Treaty, which capped individual cruisers at 10,000 tons rather than setting a simple fleet-number ceiling. The constraint becomes more important in later London negotiations over cruiser totals and tonnage. Britain could insist that any agreement preserve the statutory floor, since changing it would require another Act of Parliament. One possible bargain gives both Britain and the United States roughly 700,000 tons of cruisers, illustrating how domestic law could shape international arms control.