Dominion governments also owned the escort shortfall

Dominion governments shared responsibility with London: Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, and South African leaders had obligations to their own taxpayers. British assurances about escorts and small ships should have been tested against actual force levels rather than accepted without verification. If imperial policy left local waters under-defended, dominion governments could have built more local escorts, challenged the treaty settlement, or sought independent representation in naval negotiations. The United States might even have welcomed separate dominion participation as a step away from a unified British Empire.