The essay imagines British delegates discovering American listening devices and feeding them a staged dispute over Dominion prestige. Retaining old Dominion battlecruisers inside the Empire's treaty allowance would consume tonnage needed for newer ships. Separate Dominion allowances would instead disturb the proposed balance with the United States. The invented compromise creates a 20,000-ton, 12-inch-gunned large-cruiser category, with one ship each for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and India. Counting five permitted ships would avoid opening an unrestricted category to rival navies. The diplomatic device earns praise, although some of the ship statistics remain less developed.
Chapter · 2:58:17-3:04:25
Essay: Dominion large cruisers at the Washington Conference
An alternate Washington Conference scheme uses Dominion prestige and treaty arithmetic to create a special class of 20,000-ton, 12-inch-gunned large cruisers.