Henderson was discussing a depot-like aviation ship while serving as Rear Admiral Aircraft Carriers in 1931, four years before the Abyssinia crisis. The crisis appears to have supplied political justification for a requirement already developed through multi-fleet and multi-carrier exercises. The underlying problem was how to keep a British fleet self-sufficient while operating against Japan at the far end of a route through the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and Asian waters. The same planning demanded amphibious forces able to seize or restore bases along the route. Royal Navy work on landing craft for tanks heavier than the Army then expected shows how seriously it anticipated the logistical demands of a Far Eastern campaign.
Notable Point · 7:08-10:58
Exercises, not Abyssinia, shaped the support-ship requirement
Henderson's earlier carrier exercises suggest that the Abyssinia crisis sold an existing support concept to the Treasury rather than creating it.