The proposed programme pushes construction below the Washington Treaty's capital-ship and carrier limits. Its example is twelve County-class cruisers and four small carriers ordered each year, with the ships distributed across the Empire and Dominions. That would cost money and slow repayment of the national debt. By the London negotiations, the illustration envisages sixty new cruisers and twenty small carriers, requiring a response in the next agreement. The resulting trade-protection force would also let British capital ships and fleet carriers concentrate on their principal duties.
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Building cruisers and small carriers before the London treaty
Orders for twelve cruisers and four small carriers a year could leave Britain negotiating the London treaty around a much larger existing force.