Treaty limits created design problems and encouraged workarounds

Roskill places the Washington settlement within contemporary hopes that collective security would preserve peace. Agreed ratios and limits on displacement and gun calibre constrained the Admiralty's choices. Clarke challenges the implication that naval designers were simply trapped by those rules. Water protection and fuel allowances feature in his response, followed by a joking example of armour held for later fitting. The disagreement concerns how much room constructors retained within the treaty system.