Britain planned six Arethusa-class cruisers and built four, then planned twelve Towns and built ten. The comparison places those totals after the Leander programme and emphasizes the constraint imposed by cumulative treaty tonnage. A cruiser could comply with its individual size limit while still consuming an allowance needed for other hulls. Class numbers therefore depended on allocating tonnage across the fleet. The appearance of Town cruisers and Tribal destroyers together is also offered as a practical clue to which wartime theatres received priority.
Notable Point · 2:13:46-2:14:36
Fleet-wide treaty tonnage constrained cruiser numbers
Britain's planned and completed cruiser totals illustrate the effect of aggregate treaty allowances as well as limits on individual ships.