The Far East crisis changes more than fleet deployment because Britain can begin open wartime production before a European war starts. Germany might ignore treaty restrictions, but attractive paper designs are different from the capacity to manufacture, maintain, and use them at scale. Britain would gain time to mobilize factories and work through equipment failures under real combat pressure. Industrial organization and usable output become part of the naval balance rather than leaving fleets as fixed inventories.
Notable Point · 43:22-45:23
A Far East war lets Britain mobilize industry openly
Even a geographically contained war with Japan would allow Britain to accelerate war production while Germany remained formally constrained and struggled to convert impressive designs into reliable mass output.