A cruiser response to a 1920s hostage crisis

How would Britain respond if a South American state kidnapped its ambassador and began killing hostages in the 1920s?

Send a cruiser quickly to make the threat of British intervention credible; that level of pressure was usually sufficient.

Comparable interwar crises brought cruisers to the scene quickly, making the British political warning clear. Their presence usually resolved the immediate problem without requiring a battleship. The exchange gives a concrete example of graduated naval presence in practice.